Quantitative radiographic diagnosis of osteo-arthritis of the knee-joint in the C57BL mouse

Comparative histopathological and radiographic investigations in the C57BL mouse model of spontaneous osteo-arthritis of the knee-joint indicate that there is a relation between quantitative radiographic diagnosis and semiquantitative histopathological diagnosis. Statistical analysis based on a set of quantitative radiographic parameters of the mouse knee-joint shows that the greater part of the radiographic information reflecting the histopathological degree of the osteo-arthritis is contained in the projection areas of the lateral and medial meniscus: progression of the osteo-arthritic process is accompanied with enlargement of the menisci. On the basis of these observations, a radiography score for the osteo-arthritis has been constructed, which consists of a weighted sum of the - suitably transformed - projection areas of the lateral and medial meniscus. In addition to the size of the menisci, the width of the joint space is also a useful quantitative parameter of osteo-arthritis of the mouse knee-joint.