Biomechanical response of selected structures of the knee joint to mechanical loads

Title: Biomechanical response of the knee meniscus to the axial loads Work Title: The quantification of the structural changes in deep layer of the knee meniscus using the standardized axial loading Purpose: Due to the internal structure of the knee joint, the ability to characterize and quantify the dynamic response of the meniscal tissue directly in vivo is highly problematic. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the behavior of the meniscus under loading conditions, using parametric MR imaging. Methods: Subjects with no history of knee pain or meniscal problems were included in the study (mean age 27.8 ± 1.3 years). To obtain values of relaxation times T2* in the meniscus, the vTE sequence was used with 10 echoes ranging from 0.8 to 10.1 ms. This has resulted in minimizing the echo time, which is an advantage when differentiating meniscal tissue from surrounding components. First of all, an unloaded limb was scanned and immediately after, the limb loaded half of the person's weight was measured repeatedly in 4 consecutive scans. A custom - made diamagnetic apparatus was developed to simulate stress conditions on the lower limb in a conventional MR scanner. At each 6:10 min measurement, the knee joint was scanned in 64 sections, each image displaying a 1.3 mm section.The two -..