Imaging the Depth-Dependent Anisotropies in Articular Cartilage by Multidisciplinary Microscopies (Μmri, PLM, FTIRI)

摘要

The purpose of this study is to correlate the depthdependent anisotropic information in articular cartilage from multidisciplinary high-resolution imaging techniques,including microscopic MRI (μMRI), polarized light microscopy (PLM) and Fourier-transform infrared imaging (FTIRI). Each imaging technique can produce an anisotropy map of the tissue based on a unique physical mechanism:nuclear dipole interaction in magnetic resonance, molecularbond orientation in infrared, and optical birefringence in polarized light. We show that the standard deviation profiles for both IR and T2 anisotropies in articular cartilage have several distinct features that are common to the retardation profiles from PLM, all of them characterize the randomness of the collagen fibril network, which is a key parameter for the healthy status of the tissue.