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3D histopathological grading of osteochondral tissue using contrast-enhanced micro-computed tomography
H J Nieminen1, H K Gahunia2, K P H Pritzker3
1Research Unit of Medical Imaging, Physics and Technology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland; Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland.
Objective:
Histopathological grading of osteochondral (OC) tissue is widely used in osteoarthritis (OA) research, and it is relatively common in post-surgery in vitro diagnostics. However, relying on thin tissue section, this approach includes a number of limitations, such as: (1) destructiveness, (2) sample processing artefacts, (3) 2D section does not represent spatial 3D structure and composition of the tissue, and (4) the final outcome is subjective. To overcome these limitations, we recently developed a contrast-enhanced microCT (CEmicroCT) imaging technique to visualize the collagenous extracellular matrix (ECM) of articular cartilage (AC). In the present study, we demonstrate that histopathological scoring of OC tissue from CEmicroCT is feasible. Moreover, we establish a new, semi-quantitative OA microCT grading system for OC tissue.
Results:
Pathological features were clearly visualized in AC and subchondral bone (SB) with microCT and verified with histology, as demonstrated with image atlases. Comparison of histopathological grades (OARSI or severity (0-3)) across the characterization approaches, CEmicroCT and histology, excellent (0.92, 95% CI = [0.84, 0.96], n = 30) or fair (0.50, 95% CI = [0.16, 0.74], n = 27) intra-class correlations (ICC), respectively. A new microCT grading system was successfully established which achieved an excellent cross-method (microCT vs histology) reader-to-reader intra-class correlation (0.78, 95% CI = [0.58, 0.89], n = 27).
Conclusions:
We demonstrated that histopathological information relevant to OA can reliably be obtained from CEmicroCT images. This new grading system could be used as a reference for 3D imaging and analysis techniques intended for volumetric evaluation of OA pathology in research and clinical applications.
