부산대학교 도서관

Background: Because of the ability of blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) MRI to assess blood oxygenation changes within the microvasculature, this technique holds potential for evaluating early perisynovial changes in inflammatory arthritis. Objective: To evaluate the feasibility of BOLD MRI to detect interval perisynovial changes in knees of rabbits with inflammatory arthritis. Materials and methods: Rabbit knees were injected with albumin ( n = 9) or saline ( n = 6) intra-articularly, or were not injected (control knees, n = 9). Except for two rabbits (albumin-injected, n = 2 knees; saline-injected, n = 2 knees) that unexpectedly died on days 7 and 21 of the experiment, respectively, all other animals were scanned with BOLD MRI on days 0, 1, 7, 14, 21 and 28 after induction of arthritis. T2*-weighted gradient-echo MRI was performed during alternate 30 s of normoxia/hyperoxia. BOLD MRI measurements were compared with clinical, laboratory and histological markers. Results: Percentage of activated voxels was significantly greater in albumin-injected knees than in contralateral saline-injected knees ( P = 0.04). For albumin-injected knees ( P < 0.05) and among different categories of knees ( P = 0.009), the percentage of activated BOLD voxels varied over time. A quadratic curve for on-and-off BOLD difference was delineated for albumin- and saline-injected knees over time (albumin-injected, P = 0.047; saline-injected, P = 0.009). A trend toward a significant difference in synovial histological scores between albumin-injected and saline-injected knees was noted only for acute scores ( P = 0.07). Conclusion: As a proof of concept, BOLD MRI can depict perisynovial changes during progression of experimental arthritis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]