Development and application of new imaging techniques for osteoarthritis

Abstract

__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/