Comparison of Joint Space Width Determinations in Grade I and II Knee Osteoarthritis Patients Using Manual and Automatic Measurements

Examination of the knee to assess the narrowing of the joint gap or joint space width (JSW) is commonly done by manually checking radiographs and measuring the JSW using a ruler. This study aims to compare manual and automatic measurements with the diagnosis of grade I and grade II knee osteoarthritis. In this cross-sectional study, 40 patients with the criteria for primary osteoarthritis (OA), aged 46 to 65 years old had knee OA grades of either I or II. The knee image was evaluated by a computer program and a radiologist manually viewing and measuring the JSW joint gap using a ruler. The results showed there were no differences in the measurement of JSW medial and JSW lateral manually in grade I and grade II knee OA, at p=0.605 and p=0.344, respectively. Whereas in the automatic measurements, there was a difference between JSW medial and lateral JSW in grade I and grade II knee OA, each with p<0.001. The manual JSW measurement between medial JSW and lateral JSW in grade I and II showed that the medial and lateral knee joints have a similar distance. In the automatic, the average value of measurement lateral JSW in OA grades I and II was greater than the medial JSW. Automatic measurements showed that both of medial and lateral JSW at grade II OA knee were narrower than the results at grade I. Automatic measurement of JSW results was more consistent than the manual measurement method.