18F-NaF simultaneous PET/MRI in osteoarthritis: Initial observations with case illustration

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a debilitating disease generally of old age manifested as degeneration of articular cartilage. With no definitive treatment available, ongoing research aims at early detection and use specific noninvasive imaging markers to monitor therapeutic efficacy of disease modifying osteoarthritic drug (DMOAD) to reverse or/and arrest the disease process. Articular cartilage degradation and loss, as well as bone remodelling, are typical biomarkers of OA. As a result, an ideal imaging technique for early detection of OA is required, which must be sensitive to both soft tissue and bone health. PET/MRI is emerging as an imaging tool which can be used to study the underlying pathogenesis of OA as it enables us to assess molecular activity with PET markers while also linking them to qualitative and quantitative MRI indices of OA. In this regard recent work was exploring the role of 18F-Na Fluoride which is a marker of bone remodelling together with MRI in early detection of OA on simultaneous PET/MRI. In this article we intend to present different patterns of OA (mild to severe stages of OA) that we had observed on 18F-Sodium Fluoride (18F-NaF) PET/MRI.