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Editorial for "Diffusion Tensor Imaging for Quantitative Assessment of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury Grades and Graft".

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

McDonnell, Stephen 

Abstract

Tears to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) are common and serious knee injuries which tend to occur in young, active individuals. They result in functional impairment and require a period of relative immobilisation followed by rehabilitation, often leading to surgery. Individuals suffering from an ACL injury also have a higher risk of developing osteoarthritis as a long-term consequence(1, 2). ACL reconstructive surgery using a tendon graft remains the clinical standard of care to provide stability to the knee joint and allow patients to return to sport quicker. However, the question of when to allow patients to return to high-level sport remains hotly debated, as the risk of sustaining a second ACL rupture following reconstructive surgery is highest within the subsequent two years(3). While conventional MRI methods continue to provide high diagnostic structural information for ACL injuries, they are unable to deliver advanced quantitative measures required for biological tissue characterisation and longitudinal observation of graft maturation. Promising techniques such as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), are used for research purposes only and have not yet made the translation into routine clinical application.

Description

Keywords

Anterior Cruciate Ligament, Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries, Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Humans

Journal Title

J Magn Reson Imaging

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1053-1807
1522-2586

Volume Title

52

Publisher

Wiley

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
University of Cambridge