Department of Radiology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York City, New York, USA.
Medical College of Wisconsin, Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, USA.
J Magn Reson Imaging. 2024 Aug;60(2):702-712. doi: 10.1002/jmri.29084. Epub 2023 Oct 25.
There is limited understanding of differences in the composition and structure of ligaments between healthy males and females, and individuals of different ages. Females present higher risk for ligament injuries than males and there are conflicting reports on its cause. This study looks into T parameters for an explanation as it relates to proteoglycan, collagen, and water content in these tissues.
To investigate gender-related and age-related differences in T parameters in knee joint ligaments in healthy volunteers using a T-prepared zero echo-time (ZTE)-based pointwise-encoding time-reduction with radial acquisition (T-PETRA) sequence.
Prospective.
The study group consisted of 22 healthy subjects (11 females, ages: 41 ± 18 years, and 11 males, ages: 41 ± 14 years) with no known inflammation, trauma, or pain in the knee joint.
FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: A T-prepared 3D-PETRA sequence was used to acquire fat-suppressed images with varying spin-lock lengths (TSLs) of the knee joint at 3T.
Monoexponential, biexponential, and stretched-exponential 3D-PETRA-T parameters were measured in the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), posterior cruciate ligament (PCL), and patellar tendon (PT) by manually drawing ROIs over the entirety of the tissues.
Mann-Whitney U-tests were used to compare 3D-PETRA-T parameters in the ACL, PCL, and PT between males and females. Spearman correlation coefficients were used to determine the association between age and T parameters. Statistical significance was defined as P < 0.05.
Significant correlations with age were found the three ligaments with most of the measured T parameters (r = 0.28-0.74) with the exception of the short fraction in the PCL (P = 0.18), and the short relaxation time in the ACL (P = 0.58) and in the PCL (P = 0.14).
3D-PETRA-T can detect age-related differences in monoexponential, biexponential, and stretched-exponential T parameters in three ligaments of healthy volunteers, which are thought to be related to changes in tissue composition and structure during the aging process.
2 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 1.
对于健康男性和女性以及不同年龄个体之间的韧带组成和结构差异，人们的了解有限。女性发生韧带损伤的风险高于男性，而其病因仍存在争议。本研究旨在探讨 T 参数与这些组织中蛋白聚糖、胶原和水含量的关系，以提供一种解释。
使用 T 预备零回波时间（ZTE）基于径向采集的点编码时间减少（T-PETRA）序列，研究膝关节韧带中与性别和年龄相关的 T 参数差异。
前瞻性。
研究组由 22 名健康志愿者组成（11 名女性，年龄：41±18 岁，11 名男性，年龄：41±14 岁），他们的膝关节无已知炎症、创伤或疼痛。
磁场强度/序列：在 3T 下，使用 T 预备的 3D-PETRA 序列获取具有不同自旋锁定长度（TSL）的膝关节的脂肪抑制图像。
通过在 ACL、PCL 和髌腱（PT）的全部组织上手动绘制 ROI，测量单指数、双指数和拉伸指数 3D-PETRA-T 参数。
采用 Mann-Whitney U 检验比较男性和女性 ACL、PCL 和 PT 中的 3D-PETRA-T 参数。采用 Spearman 相关系数确定年龄与 T 参数之间的关系。定义 P<0.05 为统计学显著。
在三个韧带中，除了 PCL 的短分数（P=0.18）、ACL 和 PCL 的短弛豫时间（P=0.58 和 P=0.14）外，大多数测量的 T 参数与年龄均存在显著相关性（r=0.28-0.74）。
3D-PETRA-T 可检测健康志愿者三个韧带中单指数、双指数和拉伸指数 T 参数的年龄相关性差异，这些差异被认为与组织成分和结构在衰老过程中的变化有关。
2 技术功效：阶段 1。
