Cartilage injury and repair: assessment with magnetic resonance imaging

Articular cartilage damage plays a major role in joint degeneration and dysfunction. Accurate assessment of the morphology and degree of cartilage wear is important in diagnosis, prognosis and management, particularly as many of these patients are young or participate in high-performance sports. Magnetic resonance imaging is able to directly evaluate such injuries, due to its high spatial resolution and excellent softtissue contrast resolution. This pictoral essay aims to demonstrate normal and damaged articular cartilage on MR imaging, as well as surgically-repaired cartilage.