APPROACH management volunteers for MRI scanning across Europe
Ingrid Lether, Chris Ladel and Ali Mobasheri from the APPROACH management underwent MRI scanning in the Netherlands, Norway and Spain, for quality control in the APPROACH clinical study.
Above: Ali on the way to the first MRI scan at University Medical Center Utrecht
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an important tool to assess structural damage in knee osteoarthritis (knee OA). In the APPROACH clinical study, MRI scans are performed in five medical centres, across four different countries in Europe, over the course of 2 years. To check if the different MRI scanners produce the same result, Ingrid Lether (Dutch Arthritis Foundation) Chris Ladel (Merck) and Ali Mobasheri (University of Surrey) of the APPROACH management travelled across Europe, and voluntarily underwent MRIs at the different clinical centres.
“By scanning the same person at each clinical site, our tour across Europe will tell us more about how the different MRI scanners compare,” explains Ali Mobasheri. “This is an important exercise: it will allow us to conclude if differences observed between images from different scanners reflect structural damage in knee OA, rather than irrelevant artefacts such as environmental or methodological processes.”
In total, 300 patients will participate in the APPROACH clinical study, and will be monitored across four visits, over a period of two years. The project focusses on knee OA – a very common form of the disease that imposes a large burden on people’s quality of life.
The European Tour
