If You Can’t See It, You Can’t Diagnose It!

"Tendon and ligament injuries such as sprains and ruptures are a major source of musculoskeletal disability. MRI is a reliable tool for detecting large and complete tears of these tissues, however, low-grade injuries are more challenging to delineate. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is an advanced MRI approach for assessing tissue microstructural organization by quantifying the 3D diffusion of water molecules within tissues. Among players of high-demand sports such as NFL, the most commonly occurring injuries are those to the knee ligaments which unfortunately can be career threatening. The detection and prevention of such soft tissue injuries can potentially be improved with advances in high-resolution MR imaging techniques. My research involves validation of DTI for the quantitative characterization of ligaments and tendons, which can significantly advance our ability to accurately image intact, damaged, and healing tissues, further our understanding of the microstructural mechanisms of microtrauma and repair, and potentially improve clinical management of injuries. The above picture shows a Diffusion tensor magnetic resonance image (DT-MRI) of two rabbit knee ligaments at 50 µm isotropic resolution. The image was taken using the high-field 11.7 Tesla MR scanner at NMRL lab, RRC."