Automated Analysis of Cartilage Thickness and Tissue Quality from MRI

骨关节炎（OA）是残疾和生活质量下降的主要原因。它与关节（特别是膝关节）的骨和软骨的退行性变化有关，导致疼痛和残疾。这种疾病是非常多变的，一些患者恶化非常迅速，而其他人则在多年内缓慢进展。目前还没有特别有效的治疗方法，但更有效的治疗方法即将出现-特别是针对软骨或骨退化的药物。疾病进展的临床指标，如疼痛和残疾，是主观和非特异性的，导致长期和昂贵的临床试验，最终可能证明是不确定的。因此，迫切需要定量生物标志物（疾病进展的测量）来支持OA药物开发的决策。有效但昂贵的OA药物的可用性也将产生对确定那些最能从治疗中受益的患者的方法的需求，从而导致更具成本效益的部署。该项目的目的是开发技术，通过自动分析膝关节的3D磁共振图像（MRI），为OA提供生物标志物。这将建立在联合体成员以前进行的可行性工作的基础上。具体目标是：1.从膝关节的MRI中自动提取骨和软骨的结构-使软骨和骨形态的计算机化测量成为可能; 2.开发从图像中测量软骨和骨质的方法-能够早期检测退行性疾病; 3.调整现有的方法，以获得解剖学上一致的软骨厚度和质量的地图-使直接比较和统计分析的地图从不同的主题; 4。开发统计方法，用于检测这些地图中微妙但一致的变化模式-提供对疾病过程的洞察和检测患者队列进展的敏感手段; 5.整合各种方法，创建一个技术演示器-为该技术提供一个试验平台; 6.使用来自大规模OA成像研究的数据验证该方法。

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a major cause of disability and reduced quality of life. It is associated with degenerative changes in the bone and cartilage of articulating joints (particularly the knee), leading to pain and disability. The disease is extremely variable, with some patients deteriorating extremely rapidly, whilst others progress slowly over many years. There are currently no particularly effective treatments for the disease, but more effective therapies are on the horizon - particularly drugs that target cartilage or bone degeneration. Clinical indicators of disease progression, such as pain and disability, are subjective and non-specific, leading to long and expensive clinical trials, which may ultimately prove inconclusive. There is thus a pressing need for quantitative biomarkers (measures of disease progression) to support decision making in OA drug development. The availability of effective but expensive drugs for OA will also create a need for methods to identify those patients who would most benefit from treatment, leading to more cost-effective deployment. The aim of the project is to develop technology to provide biomarkers for OA, through automated analysis of 3D magnetic resonance images (MRI) of the knee. This will build on feasibility work previously undertaken by members of the consortium. The specific objectives are to: 1. Extract the structure of bone and cartilage from MRI of the knee automatically - enabling computerised measurement of cartilage and bone morphology; 2. Develop methods for measuring cartilage and bone quality from the images - enabling early detection of degenerative disease; 3. Adapt existing methods for obtaining anatomically consistent maps of cartilage thickness and quality - enabling direct comparison and statistical analysis of maps from different subjects; 4. Develop statistical methods for detecting subtle but consistent patterns of change in these maps - providing insight into the disease process and a sensitive means of detecting progression in cohorts of patients; 5. Integrate the methods to create a technology demonstrator - providing a test-bed for the technology; 6. Validate the approach using data from large-scale OA imaging studies.