To investigate the association between pain and perfusion in bone marrow lesions with and without cysts assessed dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE)-MRI in patients with knee osteoarthritis.
In a cross-sectional setting, perfusion in bone marrow lesions was assessed using 3 Tesla MRI and correlated (Spearman's rank correlation) to pain using the knee injury and osteoarthritis outcome score (KOOS). Bone marrow lesions were assessed across the whole knee with DCE-MRI using heuristic variable and non-contrast-enhanced-MRI using MRI osteoarthritis knee score.
Data were available from 107 participants. The participants had a mean age of 60.8 years, mean BMI of 34.5 kg/m
In this cross-sectional study, the rate of perfusion (TTP) in bone marrow lesions containing subchondral cysts was associated with pain in patients with knee OA. DCE-MRI has a potential to be used for separating subtypes of OA.