Roemer FW, et al. - Through all right knees with longitudinal MRI data of the refined Osteoarthritis Initiative Healthy Reference cohort, researchers assessed whether baseline MRI-defined structural abnormalities were correlated with the following alteration in laminar femorotibial cartilage transverse relaxation time (T2) of 82 individuals without radiographic signs, symptoms or risk factors for knee OA. The number of baseline MRI pathologies was not significantly related to the longitudinal change in the medial femorotibial compartment (MFTC) or lateral femorotibial compartment cartilage T2 over 1 or 4 years. Over one and four years, the presence of baseline MFTC osteophytes may be correlated with prolongation in superficial MFTC cartilage T2, and that MFTC meniscal damage or extrusion may be related to prolongation in deep layer T2 times over the first year. Thus, it was not evident that baseline structural MRI abnormalities are strongly associated with compositional progression during normal aging and/or the potentially earliest phases of the disease as estimated by cartilage T2, in knees without radiographic OA.