Meniscal injuries can lead to mechanical overloading of articular cartilage and eventually to knee osteoarthritis. The objective was to evaluate the potential of contrast enhanced computed tomography (CECT) to image contrast agent (CA) diffusion in human menisci with a clinical cone beam CT scanner.
Isolated human menisci (n = 26) were imaged using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and CECT in situ. Diffusion of anionic CA into the meniscus was imaged for up to 30 h. The results of CECT were compared with water, collagen and proteoglycan (PG) contents, biomechanical properties, age and histological and MR images of the samples.
Diffusion of CA required over 25 h to reach equilibrium. The CA partition (the CA concentration in the tissue divided by that in the bath) at the 40 min time point correlated significantly with that at the 30 h time point in both lateral (r = 0.706, P = 0.007) and medial (r = 0.669, P = 0.012) menisci. Furthermore, CA partition in meniscus after 30 h of diffusion agreed qualitatively with the distribution of PGs.
The cross-sectional distribution of CA was consistent with that reported in a previous μCT study on bovine meniscus. The time required to reach diffusion equilibrium was found impractical for clinical applications. However, based on the present results, shorter delay between injection and imaging (e.g., 40 min) could be feasible in clinical diagnostics of meniscal pathologies.