Osteoarthritis age estimation from three-dimensional surface renderings of computed tomography scans
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a joint disease that affects a large segment of the older adult population. Previous studies have been conducted that examine the causes of osteoarthritis, contributing factors, synovial joint biology, and the effectiveness of using new imaging technology in forensic anthropology. Age estimation is used in a variety of methods in forensic cases as a means to aid the identification of an individual. Much of the literature about OA as an age estimation method refers to the potential OA as an indication of age due to the strong link between OA and age. Winburn and Stock (2019) examined OA using an ordinal method to assess the relatedness of OA and age of the individual. The results from Winburn and Stock (2019) suggested OA is a strong indicator of age, so long as the joint is complete and not damaged by surgery or previous injury. While refined OA aging methods have been tested on physical skeletal elements, their utility in medical imaging is largely unknown. The current study aims to apply the method developed by Winburn and Stock (2019) on computed tomography (CT) scans from the New Mexico Decedent Image Database (NMDID). The NMDID is a CT image database consisting of scans of over 15,000 New Mexicans who died between the years 2010 and 2017. Each individual is represented by approximately 10,000 image slices. From these scans, three-dimensional (3D) images will be constructed through the use of DICOM systems, such as OSIRIX-MD. Meshmixer has a multitude of tools and functions that allow researchers to refine previously rendered 3D models to increase the image’s clarity. The 3D images from this study are further refined through the Meshmixer program, which provides a clear render of the images. A joint-age analysis was conducted to provide the information necessary to determine a correlation between OA and age. The results of the current study suggest that OA as a means to estimate age follows the established precedent of other age estimation techniques, even when viewed in 3D-renown CT scans.
Description
2025
License
Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International