The Ultrastructural and Morphological Characteristics of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament of the Pig: a Study Using 7.0-Tesla Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Overview

Journal J Int Med Res

Publisher Sage Publications

Specialty General Medicine

Date 2022 Nov 3

PMID 36324250

Authors

Tian You

Fujia Jiao

Wentao Zhang

Qingjun Yang

Wenqian Lu

Yong Luo

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objective: Diffusion tensor imaging research on the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is limited, and no study has revealed the ACL fibrous microstructure by 7.0-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging. Therefore, we used magnetic resonance imaging to assess the ACL.

Methods: Eight porcine ACLs were investigated by diffusion tensor imaging. Imaging was performed with a 7.0-Tesla scanner using a diffusion-weighted two-dimensional spin-echo echo-planar imaging pulse sequence optimised for muscle. The diffusion tensor eigenparameters, fractional anisotropy (FA), and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) were used for bones and muscles. Three-dimensional projection maps of the principal eigenvectors were plotted to visualise the microstructure.

Results: The mean FA and ADC for the ACL were 0.27 ± 0.079 and 0.0012 ± 0.0005, respectively. There were no significant differences between the values in the proximal and distal portions . However, the ADC was smaller in the centre than on the sides (0.0015 ± 0.0007), and the mean FA was larger in the centre than on the sides (0.42 ± 0.23). The ACL fibres were parallel on the proximal and distal sides but interweaved in the centre.

Conclusions: These findings may be beneficial for artificial ligaments.

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