Detection of osteoarthritis using acoustic emission analysis

• Published in: Medical engineering & physics Vol. 65; pp. 57 - 60
• Main Authors: Kiselev, J., Ziegler, B., Schwalbe, H.J., Franke, R.P., Wolf, U.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2019
• Subjects: Acoustic emission; Joint tribology; Osteoarthritis; Acoustic emission; Osteoarthritis; Joint tribology
• ISSN: 1350-4533; 1873-4030
• DOI: 10.1016/j.medengphy.2019.01.002

•Acoustic emission from patients’ knees tells type and location of cartilage lesions.•AE detects cartilage alterations which are not visible in MRI.•With MRI as reference, sensitivity of AE was 92%, specificity of AE was 70%.•AE due to joint friction is separated from AE due to bone microcracking. Osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee is a widespread disease, often resulting in pain, restricted mobility and a reduction of activities and participation. Initial studies gave hints that Acoustic Emission Analysis (AEA) is capable of detecting early changes in cartilage structure. However, up to date no in vivo validation studies have been conducted. A prospective pilot study was conducted to investigate this diagnostic capability and the accuracy of the AEA, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a reference standard. Additionally, potential factors influencing false positive or negative results were studied. Twenty-eight patients, receiving MRI due to discomfort of the knee, were examined with AEA. Sensitivity was 0.92 for the whole knee and 0.86 to 1 for different parts of the knee. The specificity was 0.7 and 0.59 to 0.78, respectively. Confidence intervals varied between 0 and 0.33 for sensitivity and 0.1 and 0.24 for specificity. The diagnostic accuracy of the AEA was shown to be good to very good. However, because of the relatively small number of patients involved, interpretation of the data should be handled with care. Future studies with greater sample sizes have to be conducted to confirm the results of this investigation.