T 2 Clusters Are More Sensitive Than Mean T 2 Change to Detect Early and Longitudinal Changes in Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstructed and Healthy Knees

作者：Anoosha Pai S, Anthony A. Gatti, Marianne S. Black, Katherine A. Young, Arjun Desai, Marco Barbieri, Jessica L. Asay, Seth L. Sherman, Garry E. Gold, Feliks Kogan, Brian A. Hargreaves, Akshay Chaudhari · 发表于：Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1002/jmri.29689 · 被引用次数：2 · 研究领域：Knee injuries and reconstruction techniques、Osteoarthritis Treatment and Mechanisms、Total Knee Arthroplasty Outcomes

Background Post‐traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) often follows anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR), leading to early cartilage degradation. Change in mean T 2 fails to capture subject‐specific spatial–temporal variations, highlighting the need for robust quantitative methods for early PTOA detection and monitoring. Purpose/Hypothesis Develop and apply 3D T 2 cluster analysis to ACLR and healthy knees over 2.5 years. Study Type Longitudinal case–control study. Subjects ACLR and contralateral knees of 15 subjects (9 male/6 female, 37.7 ± 10 years) and right knee of 15 matched controls (9 male/6 female, 37.1 ± 12 years) were scanned at 3 weeks, 3, 9, 18, and 30 months post‐ACLR. Sequence 3 T Quantitative double echo steady state sequence. Assessment “T 2 cluster analysis” was developed, incorporating registration and thresholding methods to identify and quantify elevated T 2 regions (T 2 clusters, T 2 C) in femoral cartilage. Percentage of cartilage covered by T 2 clusters (T 2 C % ), mean cluster size (T 2 C size ), the number of clusters (T 2 C count ), and ΔT 2 Mean (change in mean femoral cartilage T 2 relative to visit 1) were computed for all knees. Statistical Tests A linear mixed model assessed knee, time, and knee‐time interaction effects on each outcome metric ( P < 0.05), with effect sizes ( η p 2 ) describing the sensitivity of these effects to longitudinal changes. Results T 2 C % ( η p 2 = 0.22), T 2 C size , ( η p 2 = 0.14), and T 2 C count ( η p 2 ...