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Document Title: Muehlbauer-AJSM-Jul00
Article Title: Comparison
of knee joint cartilage thickness in triathletes and physically inactive
volunteers based on magnetic resonance imaging and three-dimensional analysis
Authors: Roland Muehlbauer, Susanne Lukasz, Sonja Faber, Tobias Stammberger, Felix Eckstein.
Publication: The American Journal of Sports Medicine
ISSN: 03635465
Date: July-August 2000.
(Figures included. Reference-denoting numbers appear in the same point size as document text.)
Volume: 28
Issue: 4
Pages: 541-546
Key Words: Knee, triathlete, magnetic-resonance imaging
(same as nuclear-magnetic resonance), articular cartilage, comparative.
ABSTRACT
The
objective of this study was to employ quantitative magnetic resonance imaging
for the analysis of knee joint cartilage thickness in triathletes and
physically inactive volunteers. The right knee joints of nine male triathletes
(10 hours training per week for at least 3 years) and nine inactive male
volunteers (<1 hour of physical activity per week throughout life) were
imaged with a previously validated fat-suppressed gradient echo sequence. The
cartilage plates were reconstructed three-dimensionally, and the cartilage
thickness was computed independently of the original section orientation with a
three-dimensional Euclidian distance transformation. There was a high
interindividual variability of the mean and the maximal cartilage thickness
values in all surfaces, both in the triathletes and in the inactive volunteers.
In the patella, the femoral trochlea, and the lateral femoral condyle, the mean
and maximal cartilage thickness values were slightly higher in the triathletes,
but they were somewhat lower in the medial femoral condyle, and in the medial
and lateral tibial plateau. However, the differences did not attain statistical
significance. These results are unexpected in view of the functional adaptation
observed in other musculoskeletal tissues, such as muscle and bone, in which a
more obvious relationship with the magnitude of the applied mechanical stress
has been observed.
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