Cartilage volume quantification via Live Wire segmentation1

doi:10.1016/j.acra.2004.09.003

Academic Radiology

Volume 11, Issue 12, December 2004, Pages 1389-1395

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acra.2004.09.003 Get rights and content

Rationale and objectives

A reduction in cartilage volume is characteristic of osteoarthritis and hence there exists a need for an accurate and reproducible method to measure in vivo cartilage volume. Quantification of cartilage volume from magnetic resonance (MR) images requires a segmentation technique such as the user-driven “Live Wire” strategy that can reliably delineate object volumes in a time-efficient manner. In the present work, the accuracy and reproducibility of the Live Wire method for the quantification of cartilage volume in MR images is evaluated.

Materials and methods

The accuracy of the Live Wire method was assessed by comparing the MR-based volume measurement of a patellar cartilage-shaped phantom versus data calculated via water displacement. The inter- and intra-operator reproducibility of the technique was evaluated from Live Wire segmentation of the patellar cartilage volume from fat-suppressed 3-dimensional spoiled-gradient-echo images of five healthy human volunteers performed by three operators. To provide data for analysis of inter-scan reproducibility, the human scans were repeated five times with the aid of a leg-restraining jig to minimize repositioning error.

Results

The volume of the patellar cartilage-shaped phantom measured via Live Wire segmentation of MR images was within 97.8% of its true volume. The average inter- and intra-operator coefficients of variation of three operators were 3.0% and 0.4%, respectively. The average inter-scan coefficient of variation of five repeated scans of each volunteer was 2.7%.

Conclusion

The data suggest that the Live Wire strategy is an accurate, reproducible, and efficient technique to measure cartilage volume in vivo in a feasible amount of operator time.

Section snippets

Human subjects

The University of Pennsylvania’s Institutional Review Board granted approval for all studies involving human subjects undertaken in this work. Five healthy male volunteers (ages 21–29 years; mean, 23 years) were selected based on inclusion criteria such as no history of joint pain as determined by a physician. Women of child-bearing age, children, and older adults possibly with thin or damaged patellar cartilage were excluded.

Assessment of accuracy

The accuracy of Live Wire was assessed by comparing the volume of a

Analysis of live wire accuracy

Figure 2 displays volumetric data calculated from the segmentation of the original patellar cartilage-shaped phantom data set and 19 artificially degraded reproductions of this data set. The gold standard water displacement measurement of the phantom volume (10.2 ± 0.15 mm³) is also plotted as the first bar in each series as a reference. For reasonable values of SNR (≥10:1) and blurring (≤9 pixels), the Live Wire strategy was able to accurately measure the volume of an irregularly shaped

Discussion

The Live Wire method produced measurements of accuracy, intra- and inter-operator and inter-scan %CV that are similar to those reported by studies using other segmentation strategies. Table 1 provides a reference summarizing the error and variability data from several representative reports. The referenced data were obtained using experimental designs similar to that used in this study, namely with regard to the image acquisition protocol. In general, the performance of any segmentation

Conclusion

In this work, the Live Wire method was shown to produce accurate and reproducible measurements of patellar cartilage volume under clinically feasible experimental conditions and image resolutions. The Live Wire strategy provides a quick, accurate, and consistent method to measure volume from in vivo image sets with minimal operator sensitivity. Such techniques can be potentially useful for the measurement of changes in cartilage volume in longitudinal studies of chondro-degenerative diseases.

Acknowledgment

The authors thank Professor John S. Leigh for his encouragement and support.

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: This work was performed at a National Institute of Health-supported resource center (NIH RR02305) and funded by grant no. R01-AR45242 from the National Institutes of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal, and Skin Diseases.

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Technical reportCartilage volume quantification via Live Wire segmentation1

Rationale and objectives

Materials and methods

Results

Conclusion

Section snippets

Human subjects

Assessment of accuracy

Analysis of live wire accuracy

Discussion

Conclusion

Acknowledgment

Osteoarthritis Cartilage

Osteoarthritis Cartilage

Osteoarthritis Cartilage

Osteoarthritis Cartilage

Magn Reson Imaging

Graphical Models and Image Processing

Acad Radiol

Comput Med Imaging Graph

Radiographic grading of the severity of knee osteoarthritisrelation of the Kellgren and Lawrence grade to a grade based on joint space narrowing, and correlation with arthroscopic evidence of articular cartilage degeneration

Arthritis Rheum

Relationship between arthroscopic evidence of cartilage damage and radiographic evidence of joint space narrowing in early osteoarthritis of the knee

Arthritis Rheum

Effect of alignment of the medial tibial plateau and x-ray beam on apparent progression of osteoarthritis in the standing anteroposterior knee radiograph

Arthritis Rheum

Technical report
Cartilage volume quantification via Live Wire segmentation¹