Association between thigh muscle strength four years after partial meniscectomy and radiographic features of osteoarthritis 11 years later.

Background: Meniscus injury and meniscectomy both entail increased risk of knee osteoarthritis (OA). Thigh muscle weakness is a suggested mediator of OA but there is little evidence of its importance for knee OA development after meniscectomy. This study aimed to examine the association between thigh muscle strength after partial meniscectomy in middle-aged subjects with a non-traumatic meniscal tear and later radiographic knee OA changes.

Long-term effect of removal of knee joint loading on cartilage quality evaluated by delayed gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of cartilage.

Objective: Ankle fracture patients were used as a model to study the long-term effect of the removal of joint loading on knee cartilage quality in human subjects.

Design: The knees of 10 patients with ipsilateral ankle fractures were investigated using delayed gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of cartilage (dGEMRIC) at the time of ankle injury. After 6 weeks' prescribed unloading of the affected leg, but no restrictions regarding knee movement, the cast was removed from the ankle and the patient underwent a second dGEMRIC examination.

Association between delayed gadolinium-enhanced MRI of cartilage (dGEMRIC) and joint space narrowing and osteophytes: a cohort study in patients with partial meniscectomy with 11 years of follow-up.

Objective: To examine the association between the relaxation time (T1Gd) of delayed gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of cartilage (dGEMRIC) and grade of tibiofemoral joint space narrowing (JSN) and osteophytosis 11 years later, in a cohort of meniscectomized patients.

Design: Patients (n = 45) aged 35-50 who had undergone an arthroscopic partial medial meniscectomy 1-6 years earlier, due to degenerative meniscal tear, were examined using dGEMRIC. These patients had no cartilage changes defined as deep clefts or visible bone at the time of arthroscopy.

Knee cartilage assessment with MRI (dGEMRIC) and subjective knee function in ACL injured copers: a cohort study with a 20 year follow-up.

Objective: To assess knee cartilage quality and subjective knee function, 20 years after injury in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injured copers.

Method: We examined 32 knees using delayed gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of cartilage (dGEMRIC), 20 years after a complete ACL tear. Only subjects who had coped with the ACL injury without ACL reconstruction (ACLR), and who presented without radiographic signs of osteoarthritis (OA) at an earlier 16-year follow-up, were included in this study.

Association between findings on delayed gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of cartilage and future knee osteoarthritis.

Objective: To examine the predictive value of the delayed gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of cartilage (dGEMRIC) index with regard to future radiographic osteoarthritis (OA).

Methods: In 1998, 17 knees in 11 men and 4 women with knee pain, normal results of weight-bearing radiography, and arthroscopic cartilage changes ranging from superficial fibrillation to fissuring and softening were examined using dGEMRIC. Six years later, 16 of the 17 knees were reassessed for radiographic OA changes.