Diagnostic index of three-dimensional osteoarthritic changes in XXXX condylar morphology.

@entity571 @entity1348
This study aimed to investigate imaging statistical approaches for classifying three-dimensional (3-D) osteoarthritic morphological variations among 169 @entity1348 ( @entity1348 ) condyles. Cone-beam computed tomography scans were acquired from 69 subjects with long-term @entity1348 ( @entity571 ), 15 subjects at initial diagnosis of @entity571 , and 7 healthy controls. Three-dimensional surface models of the condyles were constructed and SPHARM-PDM established correspondent points on each model. Multivariate analysis of covariance and direction-projection-permutation (DiProPerm) were used for testing statistical significance of the differences between the groups determined by clinical and radiographic diagnoses. Unsupervised classification using hierarchical agglomerative clustering was then conducted. Compared with healthy controls, @entity571 average condyle was significantly smaller in all dimensions except its anterior surface. Significant flattening of the lateral pole was noticed at initial diagnosis. We observed areas of 3.88-mm bone resorption at the superior surface and 3.10-mm bone apposition at the anterior aspect of the long-term @entity571 average model. DiProPerm supported a significant difference between the healthy control and @entity571 group ([Formula: see text]). Clinically meaningful unsupervised classification of @entity1348 condylar morphology determined a preliminary diagnostic index of 3-D osteoarthritic changes, which may be the first step towards a more targeted diagnosis of this condition.
