Dr. Jutta Ellermann Publishes Study on MRI Time in Detecting Ischemic Injury
New research, co-authored by Jutta Ellerman, MD, PhD and Casey Johnson, PhD, sheds light on how quantitative MRI could help detect Legg-Calvé-Perthes Disease (LCPD).
The recent study “Quantitative MRI Helps to Detect Hip Ischemia: Preclinical Model of Legg-Calvé-Perthes Disease” looks at whether quantitative MRI relaxation time mapping techniques could help detect ischemic injury to the developing femoral head. This type of ischemic injury is seen in the childhood hip disorder LCPD and can lead to severe femoral head deformity and osteoarthritis.
“Clinical routine radiographs and MRI have limited ability to measure the early-stage ischemic injury, which delays treatment decisions,” said Dr. Ellermann, “Contrast-enhanced MRI perfusion scans show areas that lack perfusion; however, the long-term consequences of gadolinium deposition in the brain are a potential risk for children, particularly if contrast agents are used serially to monitor disease progression.”
In this study, researchers demonstrated that quantitative relaxation time mapping, specifically T1rho, is sensitive to ischemia at very early stages and provides a possible alternative to contrast-enhanced techniques for measuring the severity of bone and marrow necrosis in pediatric patients with Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease without intravenous administration of gadolinium contrast agents.
This study is a collaborative project between the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Department of Radiology/Center for Magnetic Resonance Research and Harry Kim, MD, the international expert in the clinical treatment of patients with the disease from the Univerity of Texas Scottish Rite.
