High resolution MRI relaxation measurements of water in the articular cartilage of the meniscectomized rat knee at 4.7 T.

Measurements by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the spin-spin (T2), spin-lattice (T1) and spin-density (M0) parameters of water protons, optimized by using the Cramér-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) theory, were made to quantify the effect of surgically induced osteoarthritis on rat knee cartilage at 4.7 T. Partial meniscectomy was performed on the right medial condyle of four Sprague Dawley rats, leaving the left medial condyle as a control.