QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE VASCULARITY OF SKELETALLY IMMATURE FEMORAL CONDYLES: A CADAVER STUDY USING CONTRAST-ENHANCED MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING

The arterial supply to the chondroepiphysis is of paramount importance for proper nutrition and development. Previous animal studies had demonstrated that ischemic necrosis of the chondroepiphysis plays an important role in subsequent development of osteochondritis dissecans (OCD). Previous studies using susceptibility weighted imaging, a magnetic resonance image (MRI) sequence, demonstrated a pattern of disappearance of the arterial system over time at predilection sites for OCD lesions. The purposed of this study is to quantify distribution of the arterial perfusion in different zones of the immature distal femoral chondroepiphysis