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Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan are working to change the way doctors examine knee injuries by developing an MRI technique that captures what happens inside a knee while it is under pressure and in motion.
The project, led by Dr. Emily McWalter, an associate professor of mechanical engineering in USask’s College of Engineering specializing in biomedical engineering, aims to create a “functional” magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique that could improve the diagnosis of conditions such as early osteoarthritis, the university said in a news release this week.
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Traditional MRI scans provide detailed images of soft tissues and organs that can’t be seen with X-rays. However, patients must lie still during the scan, meaning load-bearing joints like the knee are examined without the forces they normally experience during standing or movement.
McWalter said her team’s goal is to better understand how the knee functions under real-world conditions.
“Mechanically, we want to see what’s going on inside the knee, what happens if we change the force on it,” McWalter said in the release.
“On the application side of things, how could this change diagnosis? Will we get better, more sensitive measures of tissue function if we measure when forces are applied?”
Developing a functional MRI for the knee has presented several technical challenges. Too much movement during an MRI creates distorted images, making it difficult to capture accurate results while a joint is under load.
To overcome that problem, McWalter’s team tested the technique using donated human knee tissue and designed a custom plastic device capable of applying force during an MRI scan. Plastic was chosen because metal components interfere with MRI machines.
Rather than redesigning MRI machines themselves — an impractical task given their size and complexity — the researchers focused on developing new scanning protocols and imaging sequences that allow detailed images to be captured while controlled forces are applied to the knee.
The newly developed force application device, combined with the team’s MRI scanning sequence, could eventually give physicians and researchers a clearer picture of how knee tissues behave during normal function.
The technology may be especially valuable for patients who have undergone procedures such as anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, who face a higher risk of developing early-onset osteoarthritis, and McWalter believes functional MRI could allow doctors to detect changes in tissue health much sooner than current methods.
“We developed a new MRI sequence that gives us bright contrast from tissues that would normally be black on a regular MRI,” she said. “We want that signal so we can get better measures of tissue structure, which also tells us about tissue health.”
“Using this new MRI sequence when forces are applied to the knee means that all the tissues important for proper function can be evaluated.”
The research received funding through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s (NSERC) Discovery Grant program, which supports long-term, innovative research projects.
Beyond advancing MRI technology, McWalter said the funding is helping train the next generation of engineers and biomedical researchers at USask.
The grant allows her to expand her research team and provide hands-on experience for students working on functional MRI technology.
If successful, the research could eventually lead to more accurate diagnoses, earlier detection of degenerative knee conditions and improved treatment options for patients recovering from injuries or surgery.
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