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. 2022 Aug;48(8):1429-1440.
doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2022.03.006. Epub 2022 May 7.

Quantitative Ultrasound Assessment of Early Osteoarthritis in Human Articular Cartilage Using a High-Frequency Linear Array Transducer

Theresa H Lye  1 , Omar Gachouch  2 , Lisa Renner  3 , Sefer Elezkurtaj  4 , Hannes Cash  5 , Daniel Messroghli  6 , Kay Raum  2 , Jonathan Mamou  7
Affiliations

Quantitative Ultrasound Assessment of Early Osteoarthritis in Human Articular Cartilage Using a High-Frequency Linear Array Transducer

Theresa H Lye et al. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2022 Aug.

Abstract

Quantitative ultrasound (QUS) assessment of osteoarthritis (OA) using high-frequency, research-grade single-element ultrasound systems has been reported. The objective of this ex vivo study was to assess the performance of QUS in detecting early OA using a high-frequency linear array transducer. Osteochondral plugs (n = 26) of human articular cartilage were scanned with ExactVu Micro-Ultrasound using an EV29L side-fire transducer. For comparison, the samples were also imaged with SAM200Ex, a custom 40-MHz scanning acoustic microscope with a single-element, focused transducer. Thirteen QUS parameters were derived from the ultrasound data. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data, with T1 and T2 extracted as the quantitative parameters, were also acquired for comparison. Cartilage degeneration was graded from histology and correlated to all quantitative parameters. A maximum Spearman rank correlation coefficient (ρ) of 0.75 was achieved using a combination of ExactVu QUS parameters, while a maximum ρ of 0.62 was achieved using a combination of parameters from SAM200Ex. A maximum ρ of 0.75 was achieved using the T1 and T2 MRI parameters. This study illustrates the potential of a high-frequency linear array transducer to provide a convenient method for early OA screening with results comparable to those of research-grade single-element ultrasound and MRI.

Keywords: Cartilage; Osteoarthritis; Quantitative ultrasound.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest disclosure H.C. is on the advisory board for Exact Imaging and has received honoraria for presentations for Exact Imaging on the topic of prostate cancer diagnostics. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Schematics of the (a) ExactVu and (b) SAM200Ex imaging setups. OCP = osteochondral plug, PBS = phosphate buffered saline.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Representative B-modes from (a) ExactVu and (b) SAM200Ex.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Schematic of the overall tissue processing protocol.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Normalized depth-dependent difference spectrum (NDS), apparent integrated backscatter (AIB), and normalized backscattered spectrum (NBS) from a representative cartilage sample, from both ExactVu and SAM200Ex data. (a) NDS from ExactVu data, red arrowhead indicates the depth of the subchondral bone tidemark interface, Dist. From Surf. = distance from surface. (b) AIB corresponding to the NDS in (a), blue vertical lines indicate the start and ending depths of the superficial zone; the linear fit (red line) is shown within the superficial zone, (c) NBS corresponding to the NDS in (a); the linear fit (red line) is shown within the bandwidth. (d) NDS from SAM200Ex data, for the same sample as shown in (a), (e) AIB corresponding to the NDS in (d), (f) NBS corresponding to the NDS in (d). I0 = intercept, SS = spectral slope, MF = midband fit, MAE = mean absolute error.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Backscatter coefficients (BSCs) for a representative cartilage sample, for both ExactVu and SAM200Ex data. (a) BSC (black line) for ExactVu data with its linear fit (red line). (b) BSC (black line) for SAM200Ex data, for the same sample, with its linear fit (red line). SS = spectral slope, I0 = intercept, MF = midband fit, MAE = mean absolute error.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Scatter plots of OARSI grade against (a) MRI T2, (b) ExactVu AIBslope, (c) SAM200Ex IRC; scatter plots of OARSI grade against predicted OARSI grade from partial least squares (PLS) regression on (d) MRI parameters, (e) ExactVu parameters, (f) SAM200Ex parameters. AIB = apparent integrated backscatter, IRC = integrated reflection coefficient.
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