2007 Volume No 13– pages 46-55
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Title: Comparison of novel clinically applicable methodology
for sensitive diagnostics of cartilage degeneration |
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Author: P Kiviranta, J Töyräs, MT Nieminen,
MS Laasanen, S Saarakkala, HJ Nieminen, MJ Nissi, JS Jurvelin |
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Address: Department of Physics, University of Kuopio,
P.O.B 1627, 70211 Kuopio, Finland |
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E-mail: panu.kiviranta at helsinki.fi |
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Key Words: articular cartilage, osteoarthritis, patella,
bovine, arthroscopy, magnetic resonance imaging, dGEMRIC,
indentation, ultrasound. |
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Publication date: April 3rd 2007 |
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Abstract: In order efficiently to target therapies
intending to stop or reverse degenerative processes of articular
cartilage, it would be crucial to diagnose osteoarthritis
(OA) earlier and more sensitively than is possible with the
existing clinical methods. Unfortunately, current clinical
methods for OA diagnostics are insensitive for detecting the
early degenerative changes, e.g., arising from collagen network
damage or proteoglycan depletion. We have recently investigated
several novel quantitative biophysical methods, including
ultrasound indentation, quantitative ultrasound techniques
and magnetic resonance imaging, for diagnosing the degenerative
changes of articular cartilage, typical for OA. In this study,
the combined results of these novel diagnostic methods were
compared with histological (Mankin score, MS), compositional
(proteoglycan, collagen and water content) and mechanical
(dynamic and equilibrium moduli) reference measurements of
the same bovine cartilage samples. Receiver operating characteristics
(ROC) analysis was conducted to judge the diagnostic performance
of each technique. Indentation and ultrasound techniques provided
the most sensitive measures to differentiate samples of intact
appearance (MS=0) from early (1<MS<3)
or more advanced (MS>3) degeneration. Furthermore, these
techniques were good predictors of tissue composition and
mechanical properties. The specificity and sensitivity analyses
revealed that the mechano-acoustic methods, when further developed
for in vivo use, may provide more sensitive probes
for OA diagnostics than the prevailing qualitative X-ray and
arthroscopic techniques. Noninvasive quantitative MRI measurements
showed slightly lower diagnostic performance than mechano-acoustic
techniques. The compared methods could possibly also be used
for the quantitative monitoring of success of cartilage repair. |
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Article download: Pages
46-55 (PDF file) |
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