Assessing the condition of a joint and devising treatment
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of treating a human joint disease involving cartilage comprising:
- obtaining electronic image data of a joint, wherein said image data includes both normal and diseased cartilage tissue;
electronically evaluating in three dimensions said image data to obtain information about geometry of the joint, said electronically evaluating including evaluating the joint along one or more vectors tangent or perpendicular to the cartilage or bone surface; and
selecting a therapy based on said three-dimensional evaluation.
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Abstract
Methods are disclosed for assessing the condition of a cartilage in a joint, particularly in a human knee. The methods include converting an image such as an MRI to a three dimensional map of the cartilage. The cartilage map can be correlated to a movement pattern of the joint to assess the affect of movement on cartilage wear. Changes in the thickness of cartilage over time can be determined so that therapies can be provided. Information on thickness of cartilage and curvature of cartilage or subchondral bone can be used to plan therapy. Information on movement pattern can be used to plan therapy.
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Citations
140 Claims
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1. A method of treating a human joint disease involving cartilage comprising:
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obtaining electronic image data of a joint, wherein said image data includes both normal and diseased cartilage tissue; electronically evaluating in three dimensions said image data to obtain information about geometry of the joint, said electronically evaluating including evaluating the joint along one or more vectors tangent or perpendicular to the cartilage or bone surface; and selecting a therapy based on said three-dimensional evaluation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of treating a human joint disease involving cartilage comprising:
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obtaining electronic image data of a joint, wherein said image data includes both normal and diseased cartilage tissue; electronically evaluating in three dimensions said image data to obtain information about geometry of the joint, said electronically evaluating including evaluating the joint along one or more vectors tangent or perpendicular to the cartilage or bone surface; and determining at least one of size and shape for at least one of a transplant, a graft, an implant, a replacement material, a scaffold, a regenerating material and a repair system based on said three dimensional evaluation. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A method of treating a human joint disease involving cartilage comprising:
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obtaining electronic image data of a joint, wherein said image data includes both normal and diseased cartilage tissue; electronically evaluating in three dimensions said image data to obtain information about geometry of the joint, said electronically evaluating including evaluating the joint along one or more vectors tangent or perpendicular to the cartilage or bone surface; and designing a therapy based on said three dimensional evaluation. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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47. A method of treating a human joint disease involving cartilage comprising:
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obtaining electronic image data of a joint, wherein said image data includes both normal and diseased cartilage tissue; electronically evaluating in three dimensions said image data to obtain information about volume, area, thickness, curvature, water content, sodium content, hyaluronic acid content, glycosaminoglycan content, signal intensity or relaxation time of said normal or diseased tissue, or three dimensional geometry of the joint, said electronically evaluating including evaluating said image data along one or more vectors tangent or perpendicular to the cartilage or bone surface; and selecting or designing a therapy based on said three dimensional evaluation.
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48. A method of treating a human joint disease involving cartilage comprising:
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obtaining electronic image data of a joint, wherein said image data includes both normal and diseased cartilage tissue; electronically evaluating in three dimensions said image data to obtain information about geometry of the joint, said electronically evaluating further including; estimating the loss of cartilage in a joint, wherein the joint comprises cartilage and accompanying bones on either side of the joint, which method comprises, obtaining a three-dimensional representation of the cartilage at an initial time and calculating the thickness or regional volume of a region of degenerated cartilage evaluated at the initial time, obtaining a three-dimensional representation of the cartilage at a later time, calculating the thickness or regional volume of a region of degenerated cartilage evaluated at the later time, and determining the loss in thickness or regional volume of the region of degenerated cartilage between the later and initial times; and selecting a therapy based on said three-dimensional evaluation.
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49. A method of treating a human joint disease involving cartilage comprising:
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obtaining electronic image data of a joint, wherein said image data includes both normal and diseased cartilage tissue; electronically evaluating in three dimensions said image data to obtain information about geometry of the joint, said electronically evaluating further including; determining the volume of cartilage loss in a region of a cartilage defect of a cartilage in a joint of a mammal which method comprises, determining the thickness, DN, of the normal cartilage near the cartilage defect, obtaining the thickness of the cartilage defect, DD, of the region, subtracting DD from DN to give the thickness of the cartilage loss, DL, and multiplying the DL value time the area of the cartilage defect, AD, to give the volume of cartilage loss; and selecting a therapy based on said three-dimensional evaluation.
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50. A method of treating a human joint disease involving cartilage comprising:
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obtaining electronic image data of a joint, wherein said image data includes both normal and diseased cartilage tissue; electronically evaluating in three dimensions said image data to obtain information about geometry of the joint, said electronically evaluating further including; estimating the change of cartilage in a joint of a mammal over time, which method comprises, estimating the thickness or width or area or volume of a region of cartilage at an initial time T1, estimating the thickness or width or area or volume of the region of cartilage at a later time T2, and determining the change in the thickness or width or area or volume of the region of cartilage between the initial and the later times; and selecting a therapy based on said three-dimensional evaluation.
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51. A method of treating a human joint disease involving cartilage comprising:
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obtaining electronic image data of a joint, wherein said image data includes both normal and diseased cartilage tissue; electronically evaluating in three dimensions said image data to obtain information about geometry of the joint, said electronically evaluating further including; providing a biochemically based representation of joint cartilage of a mammal, wherein the joint comprises cartilage and associated bones on either side of the joint, which method comprises, measuring a detectable biochemical component in the cartilage, determining the relative amounts of the biochemical component in the cartilage, evaluating the amounts of the biochemical component in three dimensions in the cartilage, and determining the areas of abnormally joint cartilage by identifying the areas having altered amounts of the biochemical component present; and selecting a therapy based on said three-dimensional evaluation.
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52. A method of treating a human joint disease involving cartilage comprising:
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obtaining electronic image data of a joint, wherein said image data includes both normal and diseased cartilage tissue; electronically evaluating in three dimensions said image data to obtain information about geometry of the joint, said electronically evaluating further including; estimating the change of cartilage in a joint, wherein the joint comprises articular cartilage, which method comprises, defining a 3D object coordinate system of the joint at an initial time, T1, identifying a region of a cartilage defect within the 3D object coordinate system, defining a volume of interest around the region of the cartilage defect whereby the volume of interest is larger than the region of cartilage defect, but does not encompass the entire articular cartilage, defining the 3D object coordinate system of the joint at a second timepoint, T2, placing the identically-sized volume of interest into the 3D object coordinate system at timepoint T2 using the object coordinates of the volume of interest at timepoint T1, and measuring any differences in cartilage volume within the volume of interest between timepoints T1 and T2; and selecting a therapy based on said three-dimensional evaluation.
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53. A method of treating a human joint disease involving cartilage comprising:
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obtaining electronic image data of a joint, wherein said image data includes both normal and diseased cartilage tissue; electronically evaluating in three dimensions said image to obtain information about geometry of the joint, said electronically evaluating further including; correlating cartilage image data, bone image data, and optoelectrical image data for the assessment of the condition of a joint, which method comprises, (a) obtaining the cartilage image data of the joint with a set of skin reference markers placed externally near the joint, (b) obtaining the bone image data of the joint with a set of skin reference markers positioned in the same manner as the markers in (a), (c) obtaining the optoelectrical image data of the joint with a set of skin reference markers positioned in the same manner as (a) and (b), and (d) using the skin reference markers to correlate the images obtained in (a), (b) and (c) with each other, wherein each skin reference marker is detectable in the cartilage and bone data and the opto-electrical data; and selecting a therapy based on said three-dimensional evaluation.
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54. A method of treating a human joint disease involving cartilage comprising:
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obtaining electronic data associated with an image of a joint, wherein said image data includes both normal and diseased cartilage tissue; electronically evaluating in three-dimensions said image data to obtain information about geometry of the joint, said electronically evaluating including evaluating cartilage or bone in said image along at least three vectors, at least one of the vectors being non-coplanar and non-parallel with at least two of the other vectors defining a vector plane; and selecting or designing a therapy based on said three-dimensional evaluation. - View Dependent Claims (55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68)
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69. A method of treating a human joint disease involving cartilage comprising:
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obtaining electronic image data of a joint, wherein said image data includes both normal and diseased cartilage tissue; electronically evaluating in three dimensions cartilage or bone in said image data to obtain information about geometry of the joint at a first point and a second point, wherein information related to the first point is derived based on at least one point of the joint that forms, with the first point, a first vector, wherein information related to the second point is derived based on at least one point of the joint that forms, with the second point, a second vector, and wherein the first and second vectors are non-coplanar and non-parallel; and selecting or designing a therapy based on said three-dimensional evaluation. - View Dependent Claims (70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83)
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84. A method of treating a human joint disease involving cartilage comprising:
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imaging a joint on an imaging plane to obtain electronic image data, the image data including both normal and diseased cartilage tissue; electronically evaluating in three dimensions said image data to obtain information about geometry of the joint, said electronically evaluating including evaluating cartilage or bone in said image along a vector that is non-parallel to the imaging plane; and selecting or designing a therapy based on said three-dimensional evaluation. - View Dependent Claims (85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98)
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99. A method of treating a human joint disease involving cartilage comprising:
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obtaining CT or MRI image data of a joint, wherein said image data includes both normal and diseased cartilage tissue; electronically evaluating in three dimensions said image data to obtain information about geometry of the joint, said electronically evaluating including evaluating the joint along at least two non-parallel planes; and selecting a therapy based on said three-dimensional evaluation. - View Dependent Claims (100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112)
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113. A method of treating a human joint disease involving cartilage comprising:
obtaining CT or MRI image data of a joint, wherein said image data includes both normal and diseased cartilage tissue; electronically evaluating in three dimensions said image data to obtain information about geometry of the joint, said electronically evaluating including evaluating said joint along at least two non-parallel planes; and determining at least one of size and shape for at least one of a transplant, a graft, an implant, a replacement material, a scaffold, a regenerating material and a repair system based on said three dimensional evaluation. - View Dependent Claims (114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126)
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127. A method of treating a human joint disease involving cartilage comprising:
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obtaining CT or MRI image data of a joint, wherein said image data includes both normal and diseased cartilage tissue; electronically evaluating in three dimensions said image data to obtain information about geometry of the joint, said electronically evaluating including evaluating said joint along at least two non-parallel planes; and designing a therapy based on said three dimensional evaluation. - View Dependent Claims (128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139)
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140. A method of treating a human joint disease involving cartilage comprising:
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obtaining CT or MRI image data of a joint, wherein said image data includes both normal and diseased cartilage tissue; electronically evaluating in three dimensions said image data to obtain information about volume, area, thickness, curvature, water content, sodium content, hyaluronic acid content, glycosaminoglycan content, signal intensity or relaxation time of said normal or diseased tissue, or three dimensional geometry of the joint, said electronically evaluating including evaluating said joint along at least two non-parallel planes; and selecting or designing a therapy based on said three dimensional evaluation.
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Specification