RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Signal intensity alteration in the infrapatellar fat pad at baseline for the prediction of knee symptoms and structure in older adults: a cohort study
JF Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
JO Ann Rheum Dis
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and European League Against Rheumatism
SP 1783
OP 1788
DO 10.1136/annrheumdis-2015-208360
VO 75
IS 10
A1 Weiyu Han
A1 Dawn Aitken
A1 Zhaohua Zhu
A1 Andrew Halliday
A1 Xia Wang
A1 Benny Antony
A1 Flavia Cicuttini
A1 Graeme Jones
A1 Changhai Ding
YR 2016
UL http://ard.bmj.com/content/75/10/1783.abstract
AB Objective To describe the associations between infrapatellar fat pad (IPFP) signal intensity alteration at baseline and knee symptoms and structural changes in older adults.Methods A total of 874 subjects (mean 62.1 years, 50.1% female) selected randomly from local community were studied at baseline and 770 were followed up (only 357 had MRI at follow-up) over 2.6 years. T1-weighted or T2-weighted fat suppressed MRI was used to assess IPFP signal intensity alteration (0–3), cartilage volume, cartilage defects and bone marrow lesions (BMLs) at baseline and 2.6 years later. Knee pain was assessed by self-administered Western Ontario and McMaster Osteoarthritis Index questionnaire. Radiographic osteoarthritis (OA) was assessed.Results In cross-sectional analyses, IPFP signal intensity alteration was significantly and positively associated with total knee pain as well as knee cartilage defects, BMLs and knee radiographic OA and negatively associated with patellar cartilage volume after adjustment for age, sex, body mass index and/or radiographic OA. Longitudinally, baseline signal intensity alteration within IPFP was significantly and positively associated with increases in knee pain when going upstairs/downstairs as well as increases in tibiofemoral cartilage defects and BMLs, and negatively associated with change in lateral tibial cartilage volume in multivariable analyses.Conclusions IPFP signal intensity alteration at baseline was associated with knee structural abnormalities and clinical symptoms cross-sectionally and longitudinally in older adults, suggesting that it may serve as an important imaging biomarker in knee OA.