The Effects Of Water Content Of Articular Cartilage On Biomechanical Properties And MRI Image

Tan, Kae Chin (2019) The Effects Of Water Content Of Articular Cartilage On Biomechanical Properties And MRI Image. Project Report. Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Melaka, Malaysia. (Submitted)

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Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a major health issues among the population. It causes pain in human joint when moving. The main cause of OA is degeneration of articular cartilage. The earliest stage of OA resulted in the alteration of the biomechanical properties of cartilage elastic modulus and permeability. Hence, the ability to detect the disease at its earlier stage is crucial for early detection of the disease. MRI technique is common used to evaluate the articular cartilage and reflects its biomechanical and histological complexity. However, most of the diagnoses were performed at the progressive stage of OA. Besides that, high field MRI was used in most of the previous works and current clinical procedures. High field MRI required significant purchase and high maintenance cost. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the potential application of low field MRI image in order to examine the condition of articular cartilage. Cartilage specimens obtained from the bovine femoral head were scanned using 0.18 T MRI. Gradient echo sequence of the low field MRI was found as the most suitable sequence to image the cartilage. The images of cartilage were characterized based on the intensity of the greyscale. Creep indentation test was then conducted on the cartilage specimens and follow by the indentation test was simulated using finite element method. The biomechanical properties of cartilage elastic modulus and permeability were characterized by integrating the experimental indentation test data and computational finite element model. The average elastic modulus was found to be 0.39 ± 0.14 MPa while the permeability was 22.59 ± 14.85х 10−15 m4/Ns. Correlation analyses were performed to examine the relationship between greyscale of MRI image and biomechanical properties of elastic modulus and permeability of the cartilage. It was found that the cartilage greyscale was moderately correlated with cartilage biphasic elastic modulus (r= 0.617) and lower correlation was observed with the permeability (r= 0.593). Thus, present results indicate that the low field MRI have the potential and provide promising insight to determine the condition of articular cartilage. It could be further develop to serve as an early detection of OA disease

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