3D quantitative characterization of degraded surfaces of human knee cartilages affected by osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a joint disease that affects a large number of the population nowadays. The cartilage surfaces affected by OA contain information about its degradation process and the different factors that cause this degradation. The study of the surface morphologies of human cartilages in different OA grade conditions, using 3D texture parameters, will reveal the surface features of diseased cartilages in a quantitative and objective manner, and assist in understanding the degradation process. The purpose of this project was to identify the numerical parameters that could effectively describe the distinct cartilage surface morphologies for each OA grade. Human knee cartilage samples with three different OA grades (OA I, II and III) were imaged using laser scanning microscopy (LSM) and analysed using 35 numerical parameters. A statistical method called the two-stage nested design was used to determine the most effective numerical parameters that could describe changes in the surface conditions of human knee cartilages affected by OA. The most reliable numerical parameter describing the progression of the degraded cartilage surface was the Sdc10_50 parameter and the distinctive surface feature is a bearing area related property.