FDG PET/MRI Imaging of Patellofemoral Joint Osteoarthritis

Recruiting now

Conditions studied: Patellofemoral Osteoarthritis, Knee Osteoarthritis, Knee Pain, Inflamation

In brief

This project aims to develop an \[18F\] fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) / magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method to locate the painful inflammation in PFJ OA associated with joint loading. \[18F\] FDG PET/MRI is an emerging pain imaging approach with enhanced sensitivity to painful hypermetabolic inflammation through evaluation of intracellular glucose utilization rate via (\[18F\]FDG PET) and fine anatomy details (MRI). The investigative group has shown its promise in revealing previously unidentified or unspecified pain generators in various musculoskeletal pain conditions. The investigators have also demonstrated the feasibility of visualizing the structural changes between unloaded and loaded knee joints with MRI, which can be easily adopted in the current PET/MRI setting. The main challenge in the proposed \[18F\]FDG PET/MRI approach is to differentiate the normal uptake of FDG for metabolic changes by weight-bearing from abnormal changes indicating eventual pain aggravation by weight-bearing and knee-flexion. The investigators have garnered the following two aims to validate the proposed method by comparing unloaded and loaded knee imaging results between PFJ OA pain patients and asymptomatic, matched controls.

Key facts

Study ID: NCT07625150
Run by: University of California, San Francisco
People needed: 50
Starts: 2025-02-19
Expected to finish: 2028-02-01
Last updated by the study team: 2026-06-04

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

Adult with the capacity to give informed consent
Ability to perform 25 single-leg squats
No traumatic knee injuries/surgeries since last visit for the parent study (IRB #21-34763)
No investigational drugs since last visit for the parent study (IRB #21-34763)
No contraindications to MRI or PET tracer since last visit for the parent study (IRB #21-34763)
Not taking steroid injections
Not pregnant
Additional inclusion criteria for healthy volunteers: Minimal pain (VAS=0-1) during a series of 25 single-leg squats on one or both legs

You may not qualify if…

Inability to consent for themselves
Inability to perform 25 single-leg squats with the study leg
New traumatic knee injuries/surgeries since last visit for the parent study (IRB #21-34763)
Taking investigational drugs since last visit for the parent study (IRB #21-34763)
New contraindications to MRI or PET tracer since last visit for the parent study (IRB #21-34763)
Taking steroid injections
Pregnant
Diabetic
Additional exclusion criteria for healthy volunteers: VAS of 2 or greater during a series of 25 single-leg squats on both legs

Where it is running

UCSF Radiology China Basin — San Francisco, California, United States (enrolling)

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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