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Keywords:
Musculoskeletal joint, Extremities, MR, Imaging sequences, Comparative studies
Authors:
R. V. D. van der Heijden, P. P. Vissers, E. Bron, S. Klein, J. Verhaar, G. P. Krestin, S. M. A. Bierma-Zeinstra, M. van Middelkoop, E. Oei; Rotterdam/NL
DOI:
10.1594/ecr2015/C-0754
Aims and objectives
Patellofemoral pain (PFP) is a common knee condition,
especially occurring among young and physically active individuals.
PFP is characterized by retropatellar or- peripatellar pain provoked by movements of the patellofemoral joint,
such as kneeling,
squatting and prolonged sitting with the knees bent [1,
2].
A variety of treatments,
such as exercise therapy and orthoses,
are applied,
but effects are small and a substantial group of patients with persistent complaints remains [3-4].
It has been suggested that PFP may be a precursor to patellofemoral osteoarthritis (PFOA),
however the evidence is weak.
Since PFP involves a young patient population,
it could be hypothesized that the content of the cartilage might play an important role in the etiology of PFP.
It has been suggested that a change in cartilage composition,
due to deterioration of structural components like collagen and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs),
precedes morphological characteristics of cartilage damage in OA patients.
With innovative MRI sequences,
including T1ρ and T2 mapping,
it is possible to measure these early changes in cartilage composition quantitatively by measuring cartilage composition [6-9].
Therefore,
the purpose of this study was to investigate differences in cartilage composition between patients with PFP and control subjects using quantitative T1ρ and T2 mapping MRI.