Mylène Jansen

MRI cartilage thickness up to ten years after KJD 261 13 Changes in cartilage thickness compared to baseline for all patients with a medial MAC are shown in Figure 2. As indicated by the dark blue areas, the initial increase in medial cartilage thickness was largely statistically significant after 1 year and, especially for the femur, at 2 years. The medial tibia showed some smaller significantly thicker areas up to 10 years after treatment. Long-term results showed that areas in the lateral (least affected) compartment were significantly thicker than before treatment in both the femur and tibia. These statistical tests were not performed for patients with a lateral MAC, because of the small number of patients (n=2). Compartmental changes Figure 3 shows the results per compartment of the joint for all patients combined (for 18 of whom the MAC was the medial side and for 2 the lateral side). Both the MAC femur and tibia showed a significant increase over the 10-year period after treatment (both p< 0.02), while the LAC femur and tibia did not (both p> 0.2). Figure 3 : Change over time for the 4 compartments. Missing data was imputed (n=20 on all time points). * indicates significant ( p< 0.05) changes up until that time point from baseline: from baseline to 2 years and from baseline to 10 years. # indicates significant ( p< 0.05) changes from 2 years to 10 years. Mean and standard error are shown. LAC; least affected compartment; MAC: most affected compartment.