Functional Musculoskeletal Imaging

How we move and how our body responds to loads and exercise are important factors in understanding muscle and joint disorders and pain. New, non-invasive imaging methods are allowing us to study tissue motion and functional in order to assess important links between mechanics, physiology and mechanisms of tissue-level diseases.

Our research projects are developing new imaging techniques to study the function of bone and muscle, which are unique tissues in the musculoskeletal system that are highly vascularized and metabolically active, but have received limited attention due imaging challenges. PET imaging with 18F-Fluoride provides an opportunity to study the metabolic bone response to loading. Imaging of Creatine distribution in muscle with MRI can give important information about muscle energy and health

Watkins L, Haddock B, Mackay J, Uhlrich S, Mazzoli V, Gold G, Kogan F. [18F]NaF PET-MRI Detects Increased Metabolic Bone Response to Loading Stress in Osteoarthritic Knees. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage 2022;30(11):1515-1525 [OAC Link]

Sandford H, MacKay J, Watkins L, Gold G, Kogan F, Mazzoli V. Gadolinium-Free Assessment of Synovitis Using Diffusion Tensor Imaging. 2021 NMR in Biomedicine. 2022;35(1):e4614  [NBM Link]

Crowder H, Mazzoli V, Black M, Watkins L, Kogan F, Hargreaves B, Levenston M, Gold GE. Characterizing the Transient Response of Knee Cartilage to Running: Decreases in Cartilage T2 of Female Recreational Runners. Journal of Orthopaedic Research.  [Early View] [JOR Link]

Haddock B, Fan A, Uhlrich S, Jorgenson N, Suetta C, Gold G, Kogan F. Assessment of acute bone loading in humans using [18F]-NaF PET/MRI. European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging 2019. 46(12):2452-2463

Kogan F, Levine E, Chaudhari A, Monu U, Epperson K, Oei E, Gold G, Hargreaves B. Simultaneous Bilateral-Knee MR Imaging. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. 2018; 80(2):529-537.

Kogan F, Stafford R, Englund E, Gold G, Hariharan H, Detre J, Reddy R. Perfusion has no effect on the in vivo CEST effect from Cr (CrCEST) in skeletal muscle. NMR In Biomedicine. 2017;30(1):e3673

Kogan F, Haris M, Singh A, Cai K, DeBrosse C, Nanga RP, Hariharan H, Reddy R. A Method for high-resolution imaging of creatine in vivo using chemical exchange saturation transfer. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2014;71(1):164-72. – (Editors Pick, MRM Top-5 (#4) Most Cited Articles of 2014)