Quantitative radiographic diagnosis of osteo-arthritis of the knee-joint in the C57BL mouse.
Comparative histopathological and radiographic investigations in the C57BL mouse model of spontaneous osteo-arthritis of the knee-joint indicate that there is a relation between quantitative radiographic diagnosis and semiquantitative histopathological diagnosis. Statistical analysis based on a set of quantitative radiographic parameters of the mouse knee-joint shows that the greater part of the radiographic information reflecting the histopathological degree of the osteo-arthritis is contained in the projection areas of the lateral and medial meniscus: progression of the osteo-arthritic process is accompanied with enlargement of the menisci. On the basis of these observations, a radiography score for the osteo-arthritis has been constructed, which consists of a weighted sum of the - suitably transformed - projection areas of the lateral and medial meniscus. In addition to the size of the menisci, the width of the joint space is also a useful quantitative parameter of osteo-arthritis of the mouse knee-joint.
Pataki
A
A
Pharmaceuticals Division, Ciba-Geigy Limited, Basle, Switzerland.
Reife
R
R
Witzemann
E
E
Graf
H P
HP
Schweizer
A
A
D000818:Animals; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D011859:Radiography