MULTINUCLEAR MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING FOR IN VIVO PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT OF ARTICULAR CARTILAGE

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a serious, painful and life altering joint disease that will
lead to the failure of synovial joint organs and it is most common in the knee joint
The main characteristic of knee OA is the gradual loss of articular cartilage (AC).
Gradual loss (degeneration process) usually starts with mild damage to AC and
progressing to complete loss of AC. For treatment of OA, orthopaedic surgeons may
promote the use of hyaluronic acid treatment to stop further degeneration of the
cartilage or NSAIDs to reduce the inflammation, joint swelling, stiffness and pain in
knee joint These treatments are necessary to avoid the need of knee replacements.
Thus, it is extremely important to develop a diagnostic tool that can detect early onset
of knee OA.