3D Analysis of MR-imaged Articular Cartilage

描述(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、肿胀和活动减少，导致功能障碍。患有这些疾病的患者的治疗成本是巨大的，仅在美国估计每年的经济成本就高达650亿美元。磁共振成像有助于在活体内对关节软骨进行无创成像。然而，人工分析是繁琐的、不准确的、不可重现的，并且没有商业上可用的计算机辅助工具来分析高分辨率3-D MR软骨图像数据。这项建议是为了从解剖学和多对比三维磁共振图像中定量分析高度一致的关节(膝关节、踝关节)的关节软骨形态和组织成分。该方法的主要创新之处在于，整个关节中相邻的骨骼和软骨的多个表面将在三维中同时分割，而不是在二维中独立地逐边界和逐片分割，从而利用了三维上下文信息，预期三维分割性能将得到改善。多对比磁共振组织定征将以体积的方式识别6种软骨组织类型。这一第一阶段计划的具体目标是：1)开发一种从体积高分辨率MR图像中对整个关节表面的关节软骨进行全面形态计量分析的方法。2)提出了一种基于体积多对比磁共振图像的软骨组织定征方法。3)开发了软骨分析仪原型软件，并对其在人体身体和活体踝关节、膝关节上的性能进行了评估。第二阶段研究的主要目标是建立和验证定量软骨分析的原型系统，该系统将被治疗骨关节炎的骨科临床医生、整形外科医生、肌肉骨骼放射科医生、流行病学和药理学研究人员以及磁共振扫描仪制造商使用。软骨疾病是仅次于心血管疾病的第二大致病原因。当以患病天数衡量时，软骨疾病的影响实际上超过了心血管疾病。患有这些疾病的患者的治疗成本是巨大的，据估计，美国每年的经济成本为650亿美元。因此，关节软骨的研究是一个非常热门的领域，对于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.