Project title

Establishment of 3D histopathological grading of osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common musculoskeletal disease occurring worldwide in all populations. In addition to deterioration of the quality of individuals’ life, OA also entail significant costs to society by the forms of lost working ability and costs of treatment. In this study, we establish the 3D histopathological grading of OA using cutting-edge CT technologies in vitro, and finally test the established grading with clinical CT scanner in vivo. Human osteochondral samples (>200) from patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty will be imaged with nano/micro-CT devices, as well as with clinical high-end CT device. Tissue molecular composition and high-resolution structure will quantified in 3D from the data. From this information, a novel 3D histopathological grade is developed by using statistical classification algorithms. Finally, the developed novel 3D histopathological grading of OA will be applied clinically in vivo.