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Automatic measurement and visualization of focal femoral cartilage thickness in stress-based regions of interest using three-dimensional knee models

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International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Thinning of cartilage is a common manifestation of osteoarthritis. This study addresses the need of measuring the focal femoral cartilage thickness at the weight- bearing regions of the knee by developing a reproducible and automatic method from MR images.

Methods

3D models derived from semiautomatic MR image segmentations were used in this study. Two different methods were examined for identifying the mechanical loading of the knee articulation. The first was based on a generic weight-bearing regions definition, derived from gait characteristics and cadaver studies. The second used a physically based simulation to identify the patient-specific stress distribution of the femoral cartilage, taking into account the forces and movements of the knee. For this purpose, four different scenarios were defined in our 3D finite element (FE) simulations. The radial method was used to calculate the cartilage thickness in stress-based regions of interest, and a study was performed to validate the accuracy and suitability of the radial thickness measurements.

Results

Detailed focal maps using our simulation data and regional measurements of cartilage thickness are given. We present the outcome of the different simulation scenarios and discuss how the internal/external rotations of the knee alter the overall stress distribution and affect the shape and size of the calculated weight-bearing areas. The use of FE simulations allows for a patient-specific calculation of the focal cartilage thickness.

Conclusion

It is important to assess the quantification of focal knee cartilage morphology to monitor the progression of joint diseases or related treatments. When this assessment is based on MR images, accurate and robust tools are required. In this paper, we presented a set of techniques and methodologies in order to accomplish this goal and move toward personalized medicine.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network “MultiScaleHuman: Multi-scale Biological Modalities for Physiological Human Articulation”, contract number MRTN-CT-2011-289897. The authors would like to thank the University Hospital of Geneva for the collaboration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sosteco Sismat S.r.l., Genoa, Italy

    Marios Pitikakis, Lorenzo Cesario, Patrizia Parascandolo, Loris Vosilla & Gianni Viano

  2. MIRALab, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    Andra Chincisan & Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann

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  1. Marios Pitikakis
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  2. Andra Chincisan
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Correspondence to Marios Pitikakis.

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Conflicts of interest

Marios Pitikakis, Andra Chincisan, Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann, Lorenzo Cesario, Patrizia Parascandolo, Loris Vosilla and Gianni Viano declare that they have no conflict of interest related to the study described in the article.

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Pitikakis, M., Chincisan, A., Magnenat-Thalmann, N. et al. Automatic measurement and visualization of focal femoral cartilage thickness in stress-based regions of interest using three-dimensional knee models. Int J CARS 11, 721–732 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-015-1257-3

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