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Abstract
Objectives: We investigated the effect of cartilage degeneration on ultrasound speed in human articular cartilage in vitro.
Methods: Ultrasound speed was calculated by the time-of-flight method for 22 femoral condyle osteochondral blocks obtained from osteoarthritis patients. In parallel, histological evaluation of specimens was performed using the modified Mankin and OARSI scores.
Results: The mean ultrasound speed was 1757 ± 109 m/s. Ultrasound speed showed significant negative correlation with OARSI score, and a decreasing tendency with high Mankin scores. Good correlation was found between the optically measured and the calculated cartilage thickness.
Conclusion: Our results show that articular cartilage degeneration has relatively little influence on ultrasound speed. In addition, morphological evaluation of articular cartilage using a preset value of ultrasound speed seems to offer relatively accurate results.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Mr. Koichi Miyasaka and Mr. Ryoichi Sakai from the Research Laboratory at Hitachi-Aloka Medical Co., Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan) for their technical support.
Conflict of interest
This work was funded by MEXT/JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 24689030 and H25-Nanchi-009 (Director, Sakae Tanaka) of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan.