Association of Superficial Cartilage Transverse Relaxation Time With Osteoarthritis Disease Progression: Data From the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health Biomarker Study of the Osteoarthritis Initiative

Abstract

Objective. To study whether layer-specific cartilage transverse relaxation time (T2) and/or longitudinal change is associated with clinically relevant knee osteoarthritis (OA) disease progression.Methods. The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health Biomarker Consortium was a nested case-control study on 600 knees from 600 Osteoarthritis Initiative participants. Progressor knees had both medial tibiofemoral radiographic joint space width (JSW) loss (≥0.7 mm) and a persistent increase in Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) pain score (≥9 on a 0-100 scale) at 24-48 months from baseline (n = 194). Multiecho spin-echo (MESE) magnetic resonance images (MRIs) for cartilage T2 analysis had been acquired in the right knees only (97 progressor knees). These were compared to 104 control knees without JSW or pain progression. Fifty-three knees had JSW progression, and 57 pain progression only. Cartilage thickness segmentations obtained from double-echo steady-state MRI were matched to MESE MRI to extract superficial and deep femorotibial cartilage T2. Superficial medial femorotibial compartment (MFTC) T2 at baseline was the primary, and change in deep MFTC T2 between baseline and 12 months was the secondary analytic outcome of this post hoc exploratory study.Results. Baseline superficial MFTC T2 was significantly elevated in progressor knees (adjusted mean 47.2 msec [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 46.5, 48.0]) and JSW progression only knees (adjusted mean 47.3 msec [95% CI 46.3, 48.3]), respectively, versus non-progressor knees (45.8 msec [95% CI 45.0, 46.5]) after adjustment for age, sex, body mass index, WOMAC pain score, and medial joint space narrowing grade (analysis of covariance). Change in T2 was not significantly associated with case status.Conclusion. Baseline superficial, but not deep, medial cartilage T2 is associated with clinically relevant disease progression in knee OA.

Defining and predicting radiographic knee osteoarthritis progression: a systematic review of findings from the osteoarthritis initiative

“…Of these studies, 41 articles met inclusion criteria with clear definitions of radiographic KOA progression described. There were 28 studies that analyzed various risk factors for progression, with specific definitions of radiographic KOA progression as the outcome variables (Table 1) [4, 5, 8, 9, 12–17, 21, 25, 26, 28, 31, 32, 34, 35, 38, 39, 41, 43, 46–51]. The 13 other studies out of the 41 total created or validated prediction models, tools, or risk calculators for radiographic KOA progression (Table 2) [1, 7, 10, 11, 18, 20, 22–24, 29, 33, 36, 40].…”

Clinical validation of fully automated laminar knee cartilage transverse relaxation time (T2) analysis in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)-injured knees— on behalf of the osteoarthritis (OA)-Bio consortium

“…In the Foundation of the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) Biomarker Consortium Cohort of the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI), prolonged baseline superficial medial femorotibial T2 was predictive of combined (medial) radiographic and symptomatic progression as well as of isolated (medial) radiographic progression only, compared with non-progressor knees. These findings have underpinned the prognostic value of T2 in predicting OA disease progression ( 22 ).…”