Unfocused Extracorporeal Shock Waves Induce Anabolic Effects in Rat Bone

Abstract. BACKGROUND: Extracorporeal shock waves are known to stimulate the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells toward osteoprogenitors and induce the expression of osteogenic-related growth hormones. The aim of this study was to investigate if and how extracorporeal shock waves affected new bone formation, bone microarchitecture, and the mechanical properties of bone in a healthy rat model, in order to evaluate whether extracorporeal shock wave therapy might be a potential treatment for osteoporosis. METHODS: Thirteen rats received 1000 electrohydraulically generated unfocused extracorporeal shock waves to the right tibia. The contralateral, left tibia was not treated and served as a control. At two, seven, twenty-one, and forty-nine days after administration of the shock waves, in vivo single-photon-emission computed tomography (SPECT) scanning was performed to measure new bone formation on the basis of uptake of technetium-labeled methylene diphosphonate ((99m)Tc-MDP) (n = 6). Prior to and forty-nine days after the extracorporeal shock wave therapy, micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) scans were made to examine the architectural bone changes. In addition, mechanical testing, microcrack, and histological analyses were performed. RESULTS: Extracorporeal shock waves induced a strong increase in (99m)Tc-MDP uptake in the treated tibia compared with the uptake in the untreated, control tibia. Micro-CT analysis showed that extracorporeal shock waves stimulated increases in both trabecular and cortical volume, which resulted in higher bone stiffness compared with that of the contro

Development and application of new imaging techniques for osteoarthritis

__Abstract__ In this thesis ‘Development and application of new imaging techniques for osteoarthritis’ new imaging techniques for the assessment of experimental osteoarthritis (OA) in small animal models are described. A novel method for in vivo imaging of cartilage quantity and quality, named micro-CT arthrography, was developed and validated. We showed that the diffusion of a negatively charged contrast medium into the cartilage could determine the relative amount of glycosaminoglycans in the cartilage. By using micro-CT arthrography we could determine very early changes in a small animal model for OA. Furthermore, by using bisphosphonate-enhanced multipinhole- SPECT/CT, we showed the possibility to assess bone turnover in a rat model for OA with high sensitivity. To assess macrophage involvement in OA, folate targeted multi-pinhole-SPECT/

Diagnosis of early stage knee osteoarthritis based on early clinical course

Background: Early diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis (OA) is important in managing this disease, but such an early diagnostic tool is still lacking in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to develop diagnostic models for early stage knee OA based on the first 2-year clinical course after the patient’s initial presentation in primary care and to iden