Measurement of Cartilage Thickness in Osteoarthritis and Visualization of Meniscus Tear of Knee MRI Image Processing

Abstract— Knee joint is very complex and delicate joint in human body structure. Due to weight load, stress, knees can be injured and damaged and Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the common diseases of knee injury. It is a degenerative joint disease in which cartilage slowly degrades. Another problem of knee is meniscus tear. Meniscus act as a weight distributer on joint surfaces and gives stability by preventing lateral movement of the knee joint. The medial and lateral meniscus of the knee is a C shaped cartilage pad between the tibia and the femur bones. Sports can make the injury of knee meniscus. In this work, image processing techniques are applied on magnetic resonance images (MRI) of knee and work out on the cartilage and menisci. Histogram equalization, thresholding, canny edge detection techniques, region of interest (ROI) processing and masking techniques are used for the processing. This method segments cartilage and menisci from femur and tibia. Calculation of cartilage thickness is carried out for normal and OA affected knee. Cartilage thickness or menisci is compared with the standard cartilage thickness or normal menisci given by research groups. The results are useful in the study of progression of OA and Menisci tear and for therapeutic decisions.