To determine whether assessment of morphological MRI sequences or delayed gadolinium-enhanced MRI of cartilage (dGEMRIC) would have strong correlations with arthroscopic assessment of cartilage pathology in dogs with naturally occurring medial compartment pathology of the elbow.
Dogs tentatively diagnosed with medial coronoid disease had evaluation of their affected elbows using radiography, morphological MRI sequences, and dGEMRIC MRI evaluation prior to arthroscopy. Elbow radiographs were graded 0–6 for severity of changes. Cartilage of the medial coronoid process (MCP) and humeral trochlea (HT) were scored on a 0–3 scale using anatomical MRI sequences. The T1 relaxation times for the MCP and trochlea were quantified using dGEMRIC. Cartilage pathology was graded arthroscopically using a modified Outerbridge score (MOS) by a surgeon blinded to MRI assessment. Correlations between radiography and MOS, and between MRI and MOS, were quantified.
Twenty-six elbows in 14 dogs were evaluated. There were statistically significant (
Statistically significant correlations to MOS were identified for both radiography and MRI but neither diagnostic modality provided sufficiently strong correlations to serve as a substitute for arthroscopic evaluation of the articular cartilage.