Arthroscopic autologous chondrocyte implantation in osteochondral lesions of the talus: mid-term T2-mapping MRI evaluation

• Published in: Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA, 2011-08, Vol.19 (8), p.1376-1384
• Main Authors: Battaglia, Milva, Vannini, Francesca, Buda, Roberto, Cavallo, Marco, Ruffilli, Alberto, Monti, Carlo, Galletti, Stefano, Giannini, Sandro
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Age; Ankle; Ankle Joint - pathology; Ankle Joint - surgery; Ankles; Arthritis; arthroscopy; Arthroscopy - methods; Cartilage; Cartilage (articular); Case-Control Studies; Cell Transplantation - methods; Chondrocytes; Chondrocytes - transplantation; Evaluation; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Health; Humans; Joints; Knee; Laboratories; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Mapping; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Orthopedics; Osteochondrosis - diagnosis; Osteochondrosis - surgery; Pain Measurement; Patients; Reference Values; scoring; Sports; Statistics, Nonparametric; Surgery; talus; Talus - pathology; Talus - surgery; Transplantation, Autologous; Treatment Outcome
• ISSN: 0942-2056; 1433-7347
• DOI: 10.1007/s00167-011-1509-x

Purpose Autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) in the ankle has become an established procedure to treat osteochondral lesions. However, a non-invasive method able to provide information on the nature of the repair tissue is needed. Recently, MRI T2 mapping was identified as a method capable of qualitatively characterizing articular cartilage. The aim of this study was to evaluate the mid-term results of a series of patients arthroscopically treated by ACI and investigate the nature of the repair tissue by MRI T2 mapping. Methods Twenty patients, aged 35 ± 8 years, with an osteochondral lesion of the talus, underwent ACI and were evaluated at 5 ± 1 years’ follow-up clinically (AOFAS score) and by the MRI T2-mapping sequence. MRI images were acquired using a protocol proposed by the International Cartilage Repair Society, evaluated by the MOCART score and completed by the T2-mapping sequence. Healthy volunteers, mean age 29 ± 6 years, were enrolled, and their T2 map values were used as a control. Their MRI results were then correlated with the clinical score. Results The AOFAS score increased from 59 ± 16 pre-operatively to 84 ± 18 at follow-up ( P