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Volumetric quantitative characterization of human patellar cartilage with topological and geometrical features on phase-contrast X-ray computed tomography

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Abstract

Phase-contrast X-ray computed tomography (PCI-CT) has attracted significant interest in recent years for its ability to provide significantly improved image contrast in low absorbing materials such as soft biological tissue. In the research context of cartilage imaging, previous studies have demonstrated the ability of PCI-CT to visualize structural details of human patellar cartilage matrix and capture changes to chondrocyte organization induced by osteoarthritis. This study evaluates the use of geometrical and topological features for volumetric characterization of such chondrocyte patterns in the presence (or absence) of osteoarthritic damage. Geometrical features derived from the scaling index method (SIM) and topological features derived from Minkowski Functionals were extracted from 1392 volumes of interest (VOI) annotated on PCI-CT images of ex vivo human patellar cartilage specimens. These features were subsequently used in a machine learning task with support vector regression to classify VOIs as healthy or osteoarthritic; classification performance was evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Our results show that the classification performance of SIM-derived geometrical features (AUC: 0.90 ± 0.09) is significantly better than Minkowski Functionals volume (AUC: 0.54 ± 0.02), surface (AUC: 0.72 ± 0.06), mean breadth (AUC: 0.74 ± 0.06) and Euler characteristic (AUC: 0.78 ± 0.04) (\(p<10^{-4}\)). These results suggest that such geometrical features can provide a detailed characterization of the chondrocyte organization in the cartilage matrix in an automated manner, while also enabling classification of cartilage as healthy or osteoarthritic with high accuracy. Such features could potentially serve as diagnostic imaging markers for evaluating osteoarthritis progression and its response to different therapeutic intervention strategies.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded in part by the National Institute of Health (NIH) Award R01-DA-034977, the Clinical and Translational Science Award 5-28527 within the Upstate New York Translational Research Network (UNYTRN) of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), University of Rochester, by the Center for Emerging and Innovative Sciences (CEIS), a NYSTAR-designated Center for Advanced Technology, and by the DFG Cluster of Excellence Munich—Centre for Advanced Photonics (MAP), Munich, Germany. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Health. The authors would like to thank the ESRF for providing the experimental facilities and the ESRF ID17 team for assistance in operating the facilities. The following individuals are also acknowledged for their assistance with this work Dr. Christian Glaser for his efforts in characterizing the patellar cartilage specimens and other support, Dr. Emmanuel Brun for his assistance with the data sharing process, Benjamin Mintz for his assistance in developing the annotation tool used in this study, Dr. Annie Horng for her clinical insights and assistance with preparing this manuscript, and Prof. Dr. Maximilian Reiser, FACR, FRCR of the Department of Radiology, Ludwig Maximilians University, for his continued support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Imaging Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA

    Mahesh B. Nagarajan, Markus B. Huber & Axel Wismüller

  2. Faculty of Medicine & Institute of Clinical Radiology, Ludwig Maximilians University, 80336, Munich, Germany

    Paola Coan & Axel Wismüller

  3. Department of Physics, Ludwig Maximilians University, 85748, Munich, Germany

    Paola Coan & Paul C. Diemoz

  4. European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 38000, Grenoble, France

    Paola Coan & Paul C. Diemoz

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  1. Mahesh B. Nagarajan
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Correspondence to Mahesh B. Nagarajan.

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Nagarajan, M.B., Coan, P., Huber, M.B. et al. Volumetric quantitative characterization of human patellar cartilage with topological and geometrical features on phase-contrast X-ray computed tomography. Med Biol Eng Comput 53, 1211–1220 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-015-1340-5

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