Quantitative morphometric analysis in tibiofemoral joint osteoarthritis imaging: A literature review

Abstract

Objective

To highlight published quantitative morphometric analysis (QMA) methods for assessing tibiofemoral joint osteoarthritis in magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography and underline the need for open and interoperable protocols for quantitative image analysis.

Design

A literature search on PubMed/MEDLINE and Web of Science of keywords relating to QMA in magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography in the context of tibiofemoral osteoarthritis in the past 23 years (2000–2022). The search was based on, but not limited to: “quantitative morphometric analysis” or “quantitative image analysis” in combination with “osteoarthritis”, “articular cartilage”, “subchondral bone”, “tibiofemoral joint”, “joint”, “CT”, and “MRI”. The search found 73 relevant publications that were manually screened and sorted for QMA methods. A further search to extract key functions of the underlying algorithms was performed.

Result

MRI is generally used for QMA of articular cartilage and joint contact area, while CT is generally used for QMA of subchondral bone and joint space width. Studies have shown that QMA algorithms can be adapted to new tissues and modalities. However, many methods are not easily accessible, and there is fragmentation of computational tools and platforms in the research field.

Conclusion

QMA is an active research area, and many techniques from one modality can be readily extended to another. Adoption of open-source practices can allow algorithms developed for other imaging modalities to be shared, making it possible to bridge the knowledge gap for structures and pathological features for which QMA has not yet been investigated and to increase research output overall.