Diffusion of Gd-DTPA2− into articular cartilage

The results revealed that passive diffusion of Gd-DTPA2− was significantly slower than previously assumed, leading to overestimation of the GAG content at equilibrating times of few hours. Moreover, Gd-DTPA2− distribution was found to depend not only on GAG content, but also on collagen content and diffusion direction. Interestingly, the dGEMRIC technique was found to be most sensitive to cartilage degradation in the early stages of diffusion process, suggesting that full equilibrium between gadopentetate and cartilage may not be required in order to detect cartilage degeneration.