Characterizing the transient response of knee cartilage to running: Decreases in cartilage T 2 of female recreational runners

作者：Hollis A. Crowder, Valentina Mazzoli, Marianne S. Black, Lauren Watkins, Feliks Kogan, Brian A. Hargreaves, Marc E. Levenston, Garry E. Gold · 发表于：Journal of Orthopaedic Research® · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1002/jor.24994 · 被引用次数：20 · 研究领域：Osteoarthritis Treatment and Mechanisms、Lower Extremity Biomechanics and Pathologies、Knee injuries and reconstruction techniques

Abstract Cartilage transmits and redistributes biomechanical loads in the knee joint during exercise. Exercise‐induced loading alters cartilage hydration and is detectable using quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), where T 2 relaxation time ( T 2 ) is influenced by cartilage collagen composition, fiber orientation, and changes in the extracellular matrix. This study characterized short‐term transient responses of healthy knee cartilage to running‐induced loading using bilateral scans and image registration. Eleven healthy female recreational runners (33.73 ± 4.22 years) and four healthy female controls (27.25 ± 1.38 years) were scanned on a 3T GE MRI scanner with quantitative 3D double‐echo in steady‐state before running over‐ground (runner group) or resting (control group) for 40 min. Subjects were scanned immediately post‐activity at 5‐min intervals for 60 min. T 2 times were calculated for femoral, tibial, and patellar cartilage at each time point and analyzed using a mixed‐effects model and Bonferroni post hoc. There were immediate decreases in T 2 (mean ± SEM ) post‐run in superficial femoral cartilage of at least 3.3% ± 0.3% ( p = .002) between baseline and Time 0 that remained for 25 min, a decrease in superficial tibial cartilage T 2 of 2.9% ± 0.4% ( p = .041) between baseline and Time 0, and a decrease in superficial patellar cartilage T 2 of 3.6% ± 0.3% ( p = .020) 15 min post‐run. There were decreases in the medial posterior region of superficial femoral ...