Effect of intra-articular injection of intermediate-weight hyaluronic acid on hip and knee cartilage: in-vivo evaluation using T2 mapping

Effect of intra-articular injection of intermediate-weight hyaluronic acid on hip and knee cartilage: in-vivo evaluation using T2 mapping.

Article specifications

This clinical study was published in 2018 in Journal of Eur Radiol. (IF 2014: 4.014) by German and Italian specialists. We used T2 mapping to quantify the effect of intra-articular hyaluronic acid administration (IAHAA) on cartilage with correlation to clinical symptoms. One hundred two patients with clinical and MRI diagnosis of hip or knee grade I-III chondropathy were prospectively included. All patients received a standard MRI examination of the affected hip/knee (one joint/patient) and T2-mapping multiecho sequence for cartilage evaluation. T2 values of all slices were averaged and used for analysis. One month after MR evaluation 72 patients underwent IAHAA.

 

Result

T2 mapping in hyaluronic acid (HA) patients showed a significant increase in T2 relaxation times from baseline to the first time point after therapy in knees. T2 mapping can be used to evaluate the effect over time of IAHAA in patients with hip and knee chondropathy.