Research Unit of Medical Imaging, Physics and Technology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
Lund University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Orthopaedics, Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Lund, Sweden; Lund University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Rheumatology and Molecular Skeletal Biology, Lund, Sweden.
Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2023 Apr;31(4):482-492. doi: 10.1016/j.joca.2022.10.016. Epub 2022 Nov 7.
Meniscal calcifications are associated with the pathogenesis of knee osteoarthritis (OA). We propose a micro-computed tomography (μCT) based 3D analysis of meniscal calcifications ex vivo, including a new grading system.
Human medial and lateral menisci were obtained from 10 patients having total knee replacement for medial compartment OA and 10 deceased donors without knee OA (healthy references). The samples were fixed; one subsection was imaged with μCT, and the adjacent tissue was processed for histological evaluation. Calcifications were examined from the reconstructed 3D μCT images, and a new grading system was developed. To validate the grading system, meniscal calcification volumes (CV) were quantitatively analyzed and compared between the calcification grades. Furthermore, we estimated the relationship between histopathological degeneration and the calcification severity.
3D μCT images depict calcifications in every sample, including diminutive calcifications that are not visible in histology. In the new grading system, starting from grade 2, each grade results in a CV that is 20.3 times higher (95% CI 13.3-30.5) than in the previous grade. However, there was no apparent difference in CV between grades 1 and 2. The calcification grades appear to increase with the increasing histopathological degeneration, although histopathological degeneration is also observed with small calcification grades.
3D μCT grading of meniscal calcifications is feasible. Interestingly, it seems that there are two patterns of degeneration in the menisci of our sample set: 1) with diminutive calcifications (calcification grades 1-2), and 2) with large to widespread calcifications (calcification grades 3-5).
半月板钙化与膝关节骨关节炎（OA）的发病机制有关。我们提出了一种基于微计算机断层扫描（μCT）的半月板钙化的 3D 分析方法，包括一种新的分级系统。
从 10 例因内侧间室 OA 而接受全膝关节置换的患者和 10 例无膝 OA 的已故供体（健康对照）中获得内侧和外侧半月板。样本固定后，一部分进行 μCT 成像，相邻组织进行组织学评估。从重建的 3D μCT 图像中检查钙化，并开发了一种新的分级系统。为了验证分级系统，对半月板钙化体积（CV）进行了定量分析，并比较了不同钙化等级之间的 CV。此外，我们还估计了组织病理学退变与钙化严重程度之间的关系。
3D μCT 图像描绘了每个样本中的钙化，包括组织学上不可见的微小钙化。在新的分级系统中，从 2 级开始，每个等级的 CV 是前一等级的 20.3 倍（95%CI 13.3-30.5）。然而，1 级和 2 级之间的 CV 没有明显差异。钙化等级似乎随着组织病理学退变的增加而增加，尽管在较小的钙化等级也观察到组织病理学退变。
半月板钙化的 3D μCT 分级是可行的。有趣的是，在我们的样本集中，似乎有两种半月板退变模式：1）有微小钙化（钙化等级 1-2），2）有大到广泛的钙化（钙化等级 3-5）。
