Associations of Changes in Knee Hyaline Cartilage Composition Measured With Dual-Energy Computed Tomography in Gout, Aging and Osteoarthritis.

To characterize dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) changes depicting hyaline cartilage changes in gout patients with and without osteoarthritis (OA) and in comparators without gout. Patients with suspected crystal-associated arthropathy were enrolled and underwent bilateral DECT scans of the knees. Standardized regions of interest were defined in the femorotibial hyaline cartilage. Five DECT parameters were obtained: CT numbers in Hounsfield units (HU) at 80 and 140 kV, the electron density (Rho), the effective atomic number (Z A total of 113 patients with gout (mean age 63.5 ± 14.3 years) and 15 comparators without gout (mean age 75.8 ± 11.5 years) were included, Gout was associated with DECT-detected changes in cartilage composition, similar to those observed in older patients, with some similarities and some differences to those seen in OA. These results suggest the possibility of potential DECT biomarkers of OA.