Using internally developed 3D image visualization software, a multinstitutional team of researchers led by Dr. Tom Turmezei, PhD, of Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in the U.K. found that 3D maps of the knee joint space width distribution correlated highly with structural joint disease. Taking less than 10 minutes to perform, the method was feasible and reproducible, detecting joint space width differences as low as ± 0.1 mm.
"It is reliably learned by novice users, can be personalized for disease phenotypes, and can be used to achieve a smallest detectable difference that is at least 50% smaller than that reported to be achieved at the highest performance level in radiography," the authors wrote.