Knee joint cartilage visualization and quantification in normal and osteoarthritis

Abstract

In the human body knees are most complex and delicate joints. Knee joints are frequently injured and damaged due to articulations. The knees are among the joints most commonly affected by osteoarthritis (OA). Articular Cartilage is a hard but slippery coating on the end of each bone which forms the joint. Cartilage breaks down and wears away in OA. In this work, image processing techniques are applied on magnetic resonance images (MRI) of knee. Histogram equalization, thresholding, region of interest (ROI) processing and Canny edge detection techniques are adopted. This method segments cartilage from femur, tibia and menisci. It is semi-automatic method for visualization of knee cartilage. Quantification of cartilage thickness is carried out for normal and OA cases. The results are useful in the study of progression of OA and for therapeutic decisions.