Automated segmentation and shape analysis for detecting early structural hip changes in osteoarthritis

This study presented a series of enhanced methodologies to automatically segment and analyze bone and the cartilage tissue of the hip joint from routine clinical MRIs taken from osteoarthritis patients. Further, the segmented 3D bone surfaces were used to explore the associations between bone shape and the early hip joint degeneration patterns. The proposed methods were able to automatically segment the hip bones and cartilage tissue with high accuracy from MRIs. The results indicated that the bone shape is a significant factor in early osteoarthritis.