IN VIVO SODIUM QUANTITATION OF HUMAN ARTICULAR CARTILAGE BY 23NA MRI AT 4 TESLA

骨关节炎是一种软骨退行性疾病，影响 4000万美国人和超过80%的55岁及以上的人。它 以软骨基质退化为特征，有症状 关节僵硬和肿胀，骨量增大和疼痛。 软骨主要由II型细胞外基质(ECM)组成 胶原蛋白和蛋白多糖，交织在一起的阵列。含水率 在软骨中的含量从70%到80%不等。大约60%的干燥 软骨的重量是胶原蛋白，其余的大部分是 蛋白多糖(PG)。现在已经知道，软骨的退化在 早期的骨关节炎主要包括关节功能丧失。 加分。 我们已经用生理盐水/琼脂糖凝胶成像了一个健康的人的膝盖 23Na松弛时间已归一化为 软骨。这允许创建符合以下条件的校准曲线 软骨的像素强度，以努力量化 信号。这个钠信号直接对应于 从而提供了一种监视组织完整性的方法。 我们正在调查表面线圈、鸟笼线圈和 仅传输带有表面接收线圈的鸟笼线圈。我们是 目前正在进行一项计划，以确定在 几名健康的人类志愿者以及按年龄分组的受试者。

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease of cartilage, affecting 40 million Americans and more than 80% of people age 55 and over. It is characterized by degradation of the cartilage matrix with symptoms of joint stiffness and swelling, bony enlargements, and pain. Cartilage consists mainly of an extra-cellular matrix (ECM) of type II collagen and proteoglycans, in an intertwining array. Water content in cartilage ranges from 70% to 80%. Approximately 60% of the dry weight of cartilage is collagen, with the remainder mostly being the proteoglycans (PG). It is now known that degradation of cartilage in an early osteoarthritic condition primarily involves the loss of the PG. We have imaged a healthy human knee using saline/agarose phantoms whose 23Na relaxation times have been normalized to cartilage. This allows the creation of a calibration curve to fit pixel intensities of the cartilage to in an effort to quantitate the signal. This sodium signal directly corresponds to the PG content in the cartilage, thereby providing a method to monitor tissue integrity. We are investigating the use of surface coils, a birdcage coil and a transmit only birdcage coil with surface receive coils. We are currently underway in a plan to determine sodium concentrations in several healthy human volunteers as well as subjects grouped by age.