Early diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis severity using vision transformer.

Abstract

Knee Osteoarthritis (K-OA) is characterized as a progressive joint condition with global prevalence, exhibiting deterioration over time and impacting a significant portion of the population. It happens because joints wear out slowly. The main reason for osteoarthritis is the wearing away of the cushion in the joints, which makes the bones rub together. This causes feelings of stiffness, unease, and difficulty moving. Persons with osteoarthritis find it hard to do simple things like walking, standing, or going up stairs. Besides that, it can also make people feel sad or worried because of the ongoing pain and trouble it causes. Knee osteoarthritis exerts a sustained impact on both the economy and society. Typically, radiologists assess knee health through MRI or X-ray images, assigning KL-grades. MRI excels in visualizing soft tissues like cartilage, menisci, and ligaments, directly revealing cartilage degeneration and joint inflammation crucial for osteoarthritis (OA) diagnosis. In contrast, X-rays primarily show bone, only inferring cartilage loss through joint space narrowing-a late indicator of OA. This makes MRI superior for detecting early changes and subtle lesions often missed by X-rays. However, manual diagnosis of Knee osteoarthritis is laborious and time-consuming. In response, deep learning methodologies such as vision transformer (ViT) has been implemented to enhance efficiency and streamline workflows in clinical settings. This research leverages ViT for Knee Osteoarthritis KL grading, achieving an accuracy of 88%. It illustrates that employing a simple transfer learning technique with this model yields superior performance compared to more intricate architectures.