Frontiers in musculoskeletal MRI: articular cartilage

The techniques and uses of MRI in current clinical practice, primarily as a means to detect morphologic abnormalities, are reviewed. Ongoing development of techniques that can improve morphologic assessment including techniques to increase spatial and contrast resolution is discussed, as are methods to measure cartilage volumes and thickness. Finally, several of the more widely studied techniques used to probe loss of the macromolecular structure of cartilage prior to the development of macroscopic defects are presented and compared.