3D Analysis of MR-imaged Articular Cartilage

描述（由申请人提供）：骨关节炎和关节软骨损伤非常常见，通常会导致疼痛、肿胀和活动能力降低，从而导致功能障碍。患有这些疾病的患者的治疗费用是巨大的，仅在美国估计每年的经济成本就达到650亿美元。磁共振成像有助于体内关节软骨的非侵入性成像。然而，手动分析是繁琐的、不准确的和不可再现的，并且没有商业上可获得的计算机辅助工具来分析高分辨率3-D MR软骨图像数据。该建议是用于开发从解剖学和多对比度3-D磁共振图像中高度一致的关节（膝关节，踝关节）中关节软骨形态和组织成分的定量分析。所提出的方法的主要创新之处在于，在整个关节中的相邻骨骼和软骨的多个表面将同时在3-D中被分割，而不是在2-D中独立地逐边界和逐切片，从而利用3-D上下文信息，并预期在3-D分割性能方面有所改善。多对比MR组织定征将以体积方式识别6种软骨组织类型。该第一阶段提案的具体目标是：1）开发一种方法，用于从体积高分辨率MR图像对整个关节表面上的关节软骨进行全面的形态测量分析。2)开发一种从体积多对比度MR图像中进行软骨组织定征的方法。3)开发一个原型Carpendum Analyzer软件套件，并评估其在人体尸体和体内踝关节和膝关节中的性能。第二阶段研究的总体目标是建立和验证一个用于定量软骨分析的原型系统，该系统将被骨关节炎的骨科临床医生、骨科医生、肌肉骨骼放射科医生、流行病学和药理学研究人员以及MR扫描仪制造商使用。继心血管疾病之后，软骨疾病是第二大常见疾病。当以患病天数来衡量时，软骨疾病实际上超过了心血管疾病的影响。患有这些病症的患者的治疗成本是巨大的，在美国每年估计的经济成本为650亿美元。因此，关节软骨研究是一个非常热门的领域，对未来的患者管理和护理具有非常重要的实际意义和应用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Osteoarthritis and articular cartilage injuries are very common, typically causing pain, swelling and reduced mobility leading to functional impairment. The treatment cost for patients suffering from these conditions are massive with an estimated annual economic cost of $65 billion in the US alone. Magnetic resonance imaging facilitates non-invasive imaging of articular cartilage in vivo. However, manual analysis is tedious, inaccurate, and irreproducible and no computer- aided tool is commercially available to analyze high-resolution 3-D MR cartilage image data. This proposal is for development of quantitative analysis of articular cartilage morphology and tissue composition in highly congruent joints (knee, ankle) from anatomical and multi-contrast 3-D magnetic resonance images. The main innovation of the proposed approach is that the multiple surfaces of adjoining bones and cartilages in the entire joint will be segmented simultaneously in 3-D rather than independently border-by-border and slice-by-slice in 2-D, thus taking advantage of 3-D contextual information with an expected improvement in 3-D segmentation performance. Multi-contrast MR tissue characterization will identify 6 cartilage tissue types in a volumetric fashion. The specific aims of this Phase-I proposal are to: 1) Develop a method for comprehensive morphometric analysis of articular cartilage over the complete joint surface from volumetric high-resolution MR images. 2) Develop a method for cartilage tissue characterization from volumetric multi-contrast MR images. 3) Develop a prototype Cartilage Analyzer software suite and assess its performance in human cadaver and in vivo ankles and knees. The overarching goal of the Phase II research is to build and validate a prototype system for quantitative cartilage analysis that will be utilized by orthopedic clinicians treating osteoarthritis, orthopedic surgeons, musculoskeletal radiologists, and researchers for epidemiologic and pharmacologic studies, as well as by MR scanner manufacturers. Following cardiovascular diseases, cartilage diseases are the second most frequent cause of illness. When measured in days of illness, cartilage diseases actually exceed the impact of cardiovascular diseases. The treatment cost for patients suffering from these conditions are massive with an estimated economic cost in the USA of $65 billion annually. As a result, articular cartilage research is a highly topical field with very significant practical implications and applications for future patient management and care.