Project description
Bone water imaging for the diagnosis of osteoporosis
Osteoporosis weakens bones, causing millions of fractures in the world every year. Bone quality is usually assessed through the bone mineralisation process, which however offers an incomplete view on the quality of the bone. The EU-funded ROCHESTER project proposes to utilise water content, a richer source of information on bone porosity. Researchers will develop a novel diagnostic technique based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to generate quantitative imaging biomarkers associated with cortical bone free and bound water concentrations. The project has the potential to improve the diagnosis of osteoporosis and the assessment of bone development in paediatrics, reducing the economic burden on healthcare systems.
Objective
Osteoporosis weakens bones and increases the risk of unexpected fractures. Worldwide, it causes over 8.9M fractures annually. Cortical bone consists of 3 major parts; minerals, organic matrix and water. Bone Mineral Density (BMD) is the most widespread marker to assess bone quality. There is recent evidence, however, that bone mineralisation offers only an incomplete view of bone quality. In turn, bone water (including free and bound water molecules) does convey richer information about bone quality by probing both bone porosity and the organic matrix.
We propose to develop a novel diagnostic imaging technique based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) that offers a comprehensive assessment of cortical bone quality and osteoporosis. The quantification of free and bound water molecules in cortical bone will be done in vivo as their alternation are potential biomarkers of the cortical bone quality. We will use hybrid hard-tissue MRI to capture information from short transverse-relaxation time (T2) species. We will develop MRI
strategies that will go beyond the state-of-the-art in imaging bone tissue (herein referred to as “hard-tissue MRI” employing novel pulse sequences from the ultra-short echo-time (UTE) family. A key novelty lies in the hybridisation of UTE/short echo time (STE) acquisitions. By solving a set of coupled equations derived from these acquisitions using machine-learning techniques, we will define new quantitative imaging biomarkers associated with cortical bone free and bound water concentrations.
The biomarkers will improve diagnosis of osteoporosis and alleviate its burden on healthcare systems (€37Bn cost to EU in 2010). It offers further potential in assessing bone development in pediatric imaging where ionizing and invasive methods cannot be employed. The project brings together expertise in bone MRI from a senior incoming fellow with the world-class expertise in biomedical image analysis and bone research as well as a pioneer centre in clinical.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
LS2 9JT Leeds
United Kingdom