الفهرس 
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Abstract
The present study was aiming to evaluate the ability of MRI in early detection of pathological articular cartilage changes in clinically suspected knee OA, and to evaluate the role of recent semi-quantitative MRI method in evaluating knee OA as a whole organ disease.
This study included fifty three adult patients suffered from non-traumatic unilateral or bilateral knee pain who are referred to the MRI unit, department of Diagnostic Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, during the period from July 2012 to December 2013, after being approved by the Medical Ethics Committee. The study excluded all patients with history of recent knee trauma or previous arthroscopic or operative cartilage repair, it excluded patients suffering from certain conditions that show bone marrow edema lesions in MRI study as rheumatoid arthritis or crystal arthropathy, suspected malignant marrow infiltration, suspected osteomyelitis, or suspected reflex sympathetic dystrophy of the knee.
According to radiographic Kellgren-Lawrence classification, the recruited subjects were subdivided into two groups: group I included 45 knees with low KL class (grade 0-2) and group II included 15 knees with high KL class (grade 3-4). Thorough counseling and a written informed consent was obtained from each patient prior to participating in the study.
All recruited patients were submitted to:- thorough medical history taking with analysis of the knee pain using the index of severity for osteoarthritis of the knee created by Lequesne MG et al, Antero-posterior radiograph of the knee for KL classification and subgroup allocation, and MRI study of the knee by Achieva 1.5 tesla Philips closed MR scanner. Semi-quantitative whole joint assessment of the knee was done using MOAKS scoring system, which assessed Articular cartilage, BMLs and cysts, Osteophytes, Hoffa’s synovitis and synovitis-effusion, Meniscus, Ligaments/tendon, and Peri-articular features.
Results of MOAKS scoring system were recorded, tabulated and statistically analyzed using the MegaStat system for Windows (version 10.0; MHHE Institute, Orris, JB). Descriptive statistics were done for all data, which were represented as means ± standard deviations (SD) or numbers and percent [N (%)]. Comparison between different groups was done using Mann Whitney test and chi-square test where appropriate. Correlation analysis between MOAKS joint features with each other and with Lequesne pain index score was done with assessment of Spearman correlation coefficient (r).
The cartilage defects were observed frequently in suspected group I (KL grade 0-2), In KL0, there were 25% of examined knees have PF cartilage defect either partial thickness (5 knees) or full thickness (3 knees), whereas there were 9% of examined knees have MFT cartilage defect all are partial thickness defect. This prevalence was increased linearly in KL grade 1 and KL grade 2. There was statistical significant difference between different KL scores (0-4) regarding MFT articular cartilage loss. The prevalence of full-thickness cartilage loss was much less frequent than partial-thickness loss.