Advanced Musculoskeletal Imaging Research Erasmus MC (ADMIRE)

Example:

Our research emphasis is on advanced imaging of musculoskeletal diseases, particularly those with a large burden for patients and society, such as osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, and sports injuries. 

Musculoskeletal imaging biomarkers

Sensitive and accurate imaging biomarkers are currently lacking for major musculoskeletal disorders, yet they are key to detecting these diseases earlier, providing better understanding of their etiology and pathophysiology, and discovery of new therapies. Therefore, we develop, improve, and validate innovative CT, MRI, ultrasound and nuclear imaging techniques, and apply these in clinical studies on early osteoarthritis, sports injuries and other musculoskeletal conditions. Many of these techniques are aimed at visualizing and quantitatively measuring tissue composition changes and pathological tissue processes in musculoskeletal disease.

Musculoskeletal population imaging

Another important research focus is on musculoskeletal population imaging, in which we utilize information from MRI and other imaging techniques in the large-scale population based Rotterdam Study and the Generation R cohort to address the epidemiology, genetics, and development of musculoskeletal diseases, in particular osteoarthrtis and osteoporosis. In the Generation R study we also study body composition with whole body MRI. We also conduct projects on deep learning and texture analysis on large imaging datasets.

Miscellaneous musculoskeletal imaging studies

We participate in many other musculoskeletal imaging studies, mostly on trauma related and degenerative musculoskeletal conditions. For example, in a cohort study of ankle injured patients in general practice we perform MRI to study determinants for persistent complaints and the occurrence of osteoarthritis, Other studies in which we participate include projects on advanced statistical shape modeling with radiographic and CT data to study the relationship of femoro-acetabular impingement of the hip and early osteoarthritis; rapid non-contrast MRI techniques for the knee; on the value of multi-phasic CT scanning in patients with high energy trauma; and several studies on radiography and MRI of spine degeneration.

NCBI

Collaborations within Erasmus MC

• Department of Orthopedics
• Department of General Practice
• Department of Internal Medicine
• Department of Rheumatology
• Department of Epidemiology

Collaborations outside of Erasmus MC

• Stanford University, USA (Joint and Osteoarthitis Imaging with Novel Technology lab; prof. Garry Gold)
• University of Oulu, Finland (Research Group of Medical Imaging, Physics and Technology; prof. Simo Saarakkala)
• Lund University, Sweden (Department of Orthopaedics; Prof. Martin Englund)
• Aalborg University, Denmark (Research Unit for General Practice; Dr. Michael Rathleff)
• University of Copenhagen, Denmark (Parker Institute; Prof. Mikael Boesen)
• University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia (School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences; Dr. Natalie Collins)
• La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia (La Trobe Sport and Exercise Research Centre; Prof. Kay Crossley)

ADMIRE has received financial support from:

• Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research)
• Reumafonds (Dutch Arthritis Foundation)
• FOREUM Foundation for Research in Rheumatology
• Radiological Society of North America
• European Society of Musculoskeletal Radiology
• National Basketball Association
• Coolsingel Foundation
• EU Horizon2020 Marie Sklowdowska Curie COFUND programme
• Anna Fonds|NOREF
• Erasmus MC Mrace
• General Electric Healthcare
• Cook Medical

ADMIRE is continuously open to host BSc and MSc students from various educational backgrounds, including medicine, technical medicine and engineering.