Trial Information

A Multi-Center Trial on MR Image Markers of Knee Articular Cartilage Damage in Osteoarthritis

The development of a disease modifying osteoarthritis drugs (DMOADs) is currently limited by
the inability to detect and monitor early cartilage damage that would be amenable to
treatment. There is growing interest within the pharmaceutical and research community to use
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to identify biochemical and structural changes in the
cartilage extra cellular matrix that occur early in the disease process. Although these
techniques have been validated in small studies at single sites, multi-center evaluation of
accuracy and precision, needed to apply these techniques to clinical trials of DMOADs, has
not been performed. To address this need, the primary objective for this protocol is to
identify and develop techniques to minimize systematic errors that decrease precision of MRI
evaluation of knee cartilage, and to assess the reproducibility of the newly identified MRI
techniques in measuring the cartilage morphometry and structure. Successful completion of
this project may establish a multi-center imaging network in Pennsylvania for MRI evaluation
of potential disease modifying osteoarthritis drugs (DMOADs) therapy.