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Updated: Oct 22, 2025
Software-Assisted Quantitative Measurement of Osteoarthritic Subchondral Bone Thickness
Published on: March 18, 2022
A Quantitative Analysis of Subchondral Bone Density Around Osteochondritis Dissecans Lesions of the Capitellum
Satoshi Miyamura1, Jonathan Lans2, Kozo Shimada3
1Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Hand and Upper Extremity Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Osaka University, Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan; Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Japan Community Health Care Organization Osaka Hospital, Osaka, Japan.
Purpose:
In capitellar osteochondritis dissecans (OCD), unstable lesions generally demonstrate signs of subchondral sclerosis. We postulate that OCD lesions have abnormal subchondral bone density. We aimed to quantify the subchondral bone thickness around OCD lesions using conventional computed tomography (CT) imaging.
Methods:
This retrospective study included 15 patients with capitellar OCD (OCD group) and 12 patients with an unaffected radio-capitellar joint (control group). We constructed 3-dimensional humerus models using CT data and quantified the bone density with colored contour mapping to determine the subchondral bone thickness. We measured the thickness relative to the condylar height at the centroid and lateral, medial, superior, and inferior edge points of the OCD lesion, and compared the findings between the groups. We then correlated the CT measurements with the magnetic resonance imaging measurements.
Results:
Subchondral bone thickness at the centroid and lateral, medial, superior, and inferior edges in the OCD group was significantly higher than that in the control group. Correlation analyses revealed that the magnetic resonance imaging measurements highly correlated with the CT subchondral bone measurements.
Conclusions:
We found that there is a zone of increased subchondral bone thickness around OCD lesions that should be considered during drilling, microfracture, or other reconstruction methods. We observed a high correlation with low errors between the measurements taken from conventional CT images and the measurements from magnetic resonance imaging, suggesting that both modalities are useful in clinical decision making.
Type Of Study/Level Of Evidence:
Diagnostic IV.
