Rohrbach Daniel, Inkinen Satu I, Zatloukalová Jana, Kadow-Romacker Anke, Joukainen Antti, Malo Markus K, Mamou Jonathan, Töyräs Juha, Raum Kay
Lizzi Center for Biomedical Engineering, Riverside Research, New York, New York 10038, USA.
Department of Applied Physics, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 1627, FI-70211, Kuopio, Finland.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2017 May;141(5):3105. doi: 10.1121/1.4979339.
The potential of quantitative ultrasound (QUS) to assess the regular cellular spacing in the superficial cartilage zones was investigated experimentally and numerically. Nine osteochondral samples, extracted from two human cadaver knee joints, were measured using a 50-MHz ultrasound scanning device and evaluated using Mankin score. Simulated backscattered power spectra from models with an idealized cell alignment exhibited a pronounced frequency peak. From the peak, cell spacing in the range between 15 and 40 μm between cell layers was detected with an average error of 0.2 μm. The mean QUS-based cell spacing was 28.3 ± 5.3 μm. Strong correlation (R= 0.59, p ≤ 0.001) between spacing estimates from light microscopy (LM) and QUS was found for samples with Mankin score ≤3. For higher scores, QUS-based spacing was significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) compared to LM-based spacing. QUS-based spacing estimates together with other QUS parameters may serve as future biomarkers for detecting early signs of osteoarthrosis.
通过实验和数值方法研究了定量超声（QUS）评估表层软骨区域规则细胞间距的潜力。从两个人类尸体膝关节提取了九个骨软骨样本，使用50兆赫超声扫描设备进行测量，并采用曼金评分法进行评估。具有理想化细胞排列的模型的模拟背向散射功率谱呈现出明显的频率峰值。从该峰值检测到细胞层之间的细胞间距在15至40微米之间，平均误差为0.2微米。基于QUS的平均细胞间距为28.3±5.3微米。对于曼金评分≤3的样本，发现光学显微镜（LM）和QUS的间距估计之间存在强相关性（R = 0.59，p≤0.001）。对于更高的评分，与基于LM的间距相比，基于QUS的间距显著更高（p≤0.05）。基于QUS的间距估计与其他QUS参数一起可作为未来检测骨关节炎早期迹象的生物标志物。
