TY - JOUR
T1 - A novel ultrasound technique for detection of osteochondral defects in the ankle joint
T2 - A parametric and feasibility study
AU - Sarkalkan, Nazli
AU - Loeve, Arjo J.
AU - Van Dongen, Koen W.A.
AU - Tuijthof, Gabrielle J.M.
AU - Zadpoor, Amir A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2015/12/24
Y1 - 2015/12/24
N2 - (Osteo)chondral defects (OCDs) in the ankle are currently diagnosed with modalities that are not convenient to use in long-term follow-ups. Ultrasound (US) imaging, which is a cost-effective and non-invasive alternative, has limited ability to discriminate OCDs. We aim to develop a new diagnostic technique based on US wave propagation through the ankle joint. The presence of OCDs is identified when a US signal deviates from a reference signal associated with the healthy joint. The feasibility of the proposed technique is studied using experimentally-validated 2D finite-difference time-domain models of the ankle joint. The normalized maximum cross correlation of experiments and simulation was 0.97. Effects of variables relevant to the ankle joint, US transducers and OCDs were evaluated. Variations in joint space width and transducer orientation made noticeable alterations to the reference signal: normalized root mean square error ranged from 6.29% to 65.25% and from 19.59% to 8064.2%, respectively. The results suggest that the new technique could be used for detection of OCDs, if the effects of other parameters (i.e., parameters related to the ankle joint and US transducers) can be reduced.
AB - (Osteo)chondral defects (OCDs) in the ankle are currently diagnosed with modalities that are not convenient to use in long-term follow-ups. Ultrasound (US) imaging, which is a cost-effective and non-invasive alternative, has limited ability to discriminate OCDs. We aim to develop a new diagnostic technique based on US wave propagation through the ankle joint. The presence of OCDs is identified when a US signal deviates from a reference signal associated with the healthy joint. The feasibility of the proposed technique is studied using experimentally-validated 2D finite-difference time-domain models of the ankle joint. The normalized maximum cross correlation of experiments and simulation was 0.97. Effects of variables relevant to the ankle joint, US transducers and OCDs were evaluated. Variations in joint space width and transducer orientation made noticeable alterations to the reference signal: normalized root mean square error ranged from 6.29% to 65.25% and from 19.59% to 8064.2%, respectively. The results suggest that the new technique could be used for detection of OCDs, if the effects of other parameters (i.e., parameters related to the ankle joint and US transducers) can be reduced.
KW - (osteo)chondral defect
KW - 2D finite-difference time-domain model
KW - Ankle joint
KW - Diagnosis
KW - Joint space
KW - Ultrasound propagation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84919783742&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/s150100148
DO - 10.3390/s150100148
M3 - Article
C2 - 25609040
AN - SCOPUS:84919783742
SN - 1424-8220
VL - 15
SP - 148
EP - 165
JO - Sensors (Switzerland)
JF - Sensors (Switzerland)
IS - 1
ER -