Imaging Biomarkers of Knee Osteoarthritis

Current noninvasive imaging methods to evaluate knee joints include plain radiographs,
computed tomography (CT), and clinical morphological magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of
joint structures. These techniques can only detect later-stage, macroscopic joint structural
abnormalities that are irreversible and not amenable to early therapy. This study aims to
develop highly accelerated imaging sequences for ex-vivo knee OA applications on a standard
clinical 3T scanner using novel CS and parallel imaging (PI) strategies.

Inclusion Criteria:

- Patients in the HJD OA database, ages 40-75 with high risk of developing OA as defined
by:

(i) KL score of 0 (ii) Knee pain present in at least 1 knee (iii) Normal radiographs,
(iv) At least one abnormal clinical MR finding such as prior knee injury, overweight
or traumatic bone marrow edema lesions

- Patients ages 40-75 with early OA as determined by KL scores 1-2

- Healthy controls in the HJD OA database (KL score 0, no knee pain, no meniscal or
ligament tears)

Exclusion Criteria:

- Contraindications for MRIs (e.g. pacemakers, ferromagnetic vascular clips, metal
implants, claustrophobia, etc).

- Subjects with any joint disease (example: Rheumatoid or inflammatory arthritis) other
than knee OA, corticosteroid injections within the previous 3 months, and history of
avascular necrosis, Paget's disease of bone, Wilson's disease, gout, total knee
replacement (or plan for replacement within next 24 months).

- Major co-morbidities such as diabetes, mellitus, cancer, congestive heart failure and
chronic infectious diseases.

- Alignment interventions such as insoles and knee braces

- Vulnerable patients will not be recruited for this study