Automated Measurement of Patient-Specific Tibial Slopes from MRI.

Background: Multi-planar proximal tibial slopes may be associated with increased likelihood of osteoarthritis and anterior cruciate ligament injury, due in part to their role in checking the anterior-posterior stability of the knee. Established methods suffer repeatability limitations and lack computational efficiency for intuitive clinical adoption. The aims of this study were to develop a novel automated approach and to compare the repeatability and computational efficiency of the approach against previously established methods.

A novel 3D approach for determination of frontal and coronal plane tibial slopes from MR imaging.

Background: The proximal tibia is geometrically complex, asymmetrical, and variable, is heavily implicated in arthrokinematics of the knee joint, and thus a contributor to knee pathologies such as non-contact anterior cruciate ligament injury. Medial, lateral, and coronal tibial slopes are anatomic parameters that may increase predisposition to knee injuries, but the extent to which each contributes has yet to be fully realized. Previously, two-dimensional methods have quantified tibial slopes, but more reliable 3D methods may prove advantageous.