The Battleship technique: A reliable method to quantify intraarticular distance maps patterns and correlate hindfoot alignment.

Purpose: Weight-bearing computed tomography (WBCT) creates colour-coded distance maps (DM) to analyze intraarticular contact areas, offering a detailed assessment of joint surface interactions. However, clinical applications of DM remain underexplored. This study introduces the 'Battleship technique (BST)' to evaluate contact area patterns in patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the talar dome, producing a single point representing the distance map weighted sum (DMWS).