The calculation of the femoral condyle cartilage volume and surface area in patients with osteoarthritis

Abstract

Objective: Osteoarthritis is non-inflammatory, degenerative, and chronic disease observed, especially as progressive in load-bearing joints. There are several studies that measure the volume and surface area of the knee joint cartilage in osteoarthritis patients. However, different methods were used in these studies. Materials and Methods: Our study population consisted of 25 patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. Twenty-five healthy individuals were included in this study as a control group. In our study, planimetry and quadratic ruler method, which are among stereological methods, were used over magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure the femoral condyle cartilage volume and surface area. Results: The average cartilage volume measurement 6.54 cm3 in the female patient group and 13.51 cm3 in the female control group. In this measurement, 7.49 cm3 in male patients was measured in the control group 15.71 cm3. In the statistical comparison between the groups, it was determined that the values in the patient group decreased significantly compared with the control group (p<0.001). Conclusion: When compared with the literature, it is concluded that our method may be used as a valid method because the survey results are close to each other and the average values.

Keywords

• knee osteoarthritis
• stereology
• mri
• femoral condyle.