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Development of an Electromechanical Grade to Assess Human Knee Articular Cartilage Quality

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An Erratum to this article was published on 18 July 2017

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Abstract

Quantitative assessments of articular cartilage function are needed to aid clinical decision making. Our objectives were to develop a new electromechanical grade to assess quantitatively cartilage quality and test its reliability. Electromechanical properties were measured using a hand-held electromechanical probe on 200 human articular surfaces from cadaveric donors and osteoarthritic patients. These data were used to create a reference electromechanical property database and to compare with visual arthroscopic International Cartilage Repair Society (ICRS) grading of cartilage degradation. The effect of patient-specific and location-specific characteristics on electromechanical properties was investigated to construct a continuous and quantitative electromechanical grade analogous to ICRS grade. The reliability of this novel grade was assessed by comparing it with ICRS grades on 37 human articular surfaces. Electromechanical properties were not affected by patient-specific characteristics for each ICRS grade, but were significantly different across the articular surface. Electromechanical properties varied linearly with ICRS grade, leading to a simple linear transformation from one scale to the other. The electromechanical grade correlated strongly with ICRS grade (r = 0.92, p < 0.0001). Additionally, the electromechanical grade detected lesions that were not found visually. This novel grade can assist the surgeon in assessing human knee cartilage by providing a quantitative and reliable grading system.

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  • 18 July 2017

    An erratum to this article has been published.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the technical contributions of Jean-Francois Lavoie, Dalia Zaky, Aurore Li Tong, Mathieu Masse and Laura-Alexie Chevrolat. Funding was provided by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), IRAP program from National Research Council Canada, MÉDITIS Program, the Canadian Arthritis Society and Biomomentum Inc.

Conflict of interest

Two of the co-authors, E. Quenneville and M. Garon, are the owners of the company Biomomentum Inc.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering and Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Polytechnique Montreal, P.O. Box 6079, Station Centre-Ville, 2900 Boul. Edouard-Montpetit, Montreal, QC, H3C 3A7, Canada

    Sotcheadt Sim, Insaf Hadjab & Michael D. Buschmann

  2. Biomomentum Inc., 970 Michelin St. Suite 200, Laval, QC, H7L 5C1, Canada

    Sotcheadt Sim, Insaf Hadjab, Martin Garon & Eric Quenneville

  3. Department of Surgery, University of Montreal, P.O. Box 6128, Station Centre-Ville, Montreal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada

    Patrick Lavigne

  4. Groupe de Recherche en Sciences et Technologies Biomédicales, Polytechnique Montreal, P.O. Box 6079, Station Centre-Ville, Montreal, QC, H3C 3A7, Canada

    Michael D. Buschmann

Authors
  1. Sotcheadt Sim
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  2. Insaf Hadjab
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  3. Martin Garon
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  4. Eric Quenneville
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  5. Patrick Lavigne
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  6. Michael D. Buschmann
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael D. Buschmann.

Additional information

Associate Editor Eric M. Darling oversaw the review of this article.

The original version of this article was revised: Table 1 was corrected.

An erratum to this article is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-017-1887-4.

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Sim, S., Hadjab, I., Garon, M. et al. Development of an Electromechanical Grade to Assess Human Knee Articular Cartilage Quality. Ann Biomed Eng 45, 2410–2421 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-017-1879-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-017-1879-4

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