MRI of BML

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Magnetic resonance imaging of bone marrow lesions in osteoarthritis

• IRAS ID

  148544

• Contact name

  Richard Hodgson

• Contact email

  richard.hodgson@manchester.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Manchester

• Duration of Study in the UK

  4 years, 0 months, 1 days

• Research summary

  Research into treatment of osteoarthritis is hampered by the chronicity of the disease (which means the final outcome may not be clinically apparent for decades) and the lack of reliable, responsive biomarkers or measures of disease. Bone marrow lesions (BMLs) are a feature of osteoarthritis commonly seen on MRI which are a candidate for such a measurement. However, they are difficult to quantify due to the poor definition of the edges and, in marked contrast to cartilage, they have been poorly characterised with MRI.
  The aim of this project is to better characterise bone marrow lesions in terms of their MRI characteristics, to optimise MRI for more reproducible and meaningful measurements of BML size and to develop MR measurements of whole bone regions which will quantify BML load simply and robustly. The ability of these techniques to differentiate persistent and transient BMLs will also be assessed.

  Overview:
  Phase 1: MRI technique optimisation and comparison of measurements from BMLs and normal bone marrow
  Phase 2: Normal variation and reproducibility
  Phase 3: Prediction of persistent BMLs

• REC name

  North West - Greater Manchester East Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  14/NW/1440

• Date of REC Opinion

  1 Dec 2014

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion