Accessibility to combined assessment of morphology and physiology in articular cartilage using 23NA/1H coil at 1.5 Tesla MRI

Osteoarthritis (OA) can be characterised by the gradual loss of articular cartilage (AC). At the early stages of OA, physiological (loss of proteoglycan associated with loss of sodium) and morphological (thickness, surface curvature, volume) changes in AC have been measured. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) at >3Tesla provides an excellent anatomy (morphology) and quantification of various compositions (physiology) of. This work aims to investigate the possibilities of combined assessment of AC morphology and physiology using 23Na/1H coil at 1.5Tesla MRI.