Authors
Mirela Kostadinova, Iman Harrou, Scherwin Mahmoudi, Simon Bernatz, Elena Hoehne, Philipp Reschke, Aynur Goekduman, Leona S Alizadeh, Leon D Gruenewald, Tommaso D'Angelo, Christian Booz, Katrin Eichler, Thomas J Vogl, Ibrahim Yel
Published in
Academic radiology. Oct 01, 2026. Epub Oct 01, 2026.
Abstract
To assess the agreement between automated cartilage thickness measurements derived from three-dimensional (3D) dual-echo steady-state (DESS) magnetic resonance imaging and manual radiologist measurements.
In 111 patients, cartilage thickness measurements across 21 knee subregions were compared between an automated segmentation software and manual radiologist measurements on 3D DESS and proton density (PD) fat-suppressed sequences. Agreement was assessed using Bland-Altman analysis, Pearson correlation, and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). A post-hoc calibration approach was applied to both comparisons. Intersequence variability between PD manual and DESS manual measurements served as a benchmark.
The automated method showed a systematic overestimation relative to the PD manual (bias +0.7 mm) and the DESS manual (bias +0.9 mm). After calibration, bias was eliminated. Postcalibration ICC improved substantially (PD: from 0.29-0.61; DESS: from 0.18-0.67), reaching levels comparable to the intersequence benchmark (ICC = 0.73). Per-region analysis revealed the greatest variability in patellar and lateral tibial subregions.
Following a simple global calibration, automated cartilage thickness measurements achieve overall acceptable agreement with manual reference measurements that is comparable to inherent intersequence variability. This supports the clinical acceptability of the automated approach as an efficient and reproducible alternative to manual segmentation.
PMID:
42823317
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 02 Oct 2026.
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