Feasibility Study on Detection of Articular Cartilage Degeneration by Quantitative Analysis Based
on Ultrasound Radio Frequency Signal
LI Shanshan1, WANG Yuanyuan2, SUN Yang1, HE Qiong2, YANG Zhen1, LUO Jianwen2, CUI Ligang1
1. Department of Ultrasound, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100191, China; 2. College of Biomedical Engineering,School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Abstract：Objective To investigate the feasibility of quantitative assessment based on ultrasound radio frequency (RF) signal
in diagnosis of femoral trochlear cartilage degeneration in vivo. Methods A total of 58 patients, 60 cases of knee arthroscopy
were enrolled in this study. Radio frequency signals and high-frequency ultrasound gray-scale images of trochlear cartilage
were collected before the operations. Arthroscopy was used as the gold standard to determine whether the trochlear cartilage
was degenerative, and the patients were divided into case group and control group. Ten parameters of the cartilage region of the
trochlear femur were extracted for statistical analysis. Gray-scale ultrasound images were also collected for diagnosis. Results
ultrasound roughness index of anterior surface (URI_ant), reflection coefficient of anterior surface, spatial variation of US reflection
coefficient and contrast of reflection coefficient between anterior surface and interior cartilage were different between the case group
and control group (P<0.01). The application of ROC curve for URI_ant 8.45 cutoff value to determine the largest AUC of cartilage
degeneration, sensitivity and specificity were 72.5% and 95.0%, respectively. Conventional high frequency ultrasonic sensitivity and
specificity of 67.5% and 80.0 %, respectively. Conclusion It is feasible to quantitatively evaluate the degeneration of femoral
trochlear cartilage using multiple parameters based on ultrasonic radiofrequency signal, and it is better than conventional
grayscale ultrasound.
李姗姗1，王媛媛2，孙洋1，何琼2，杨震1，罗建文2，崔立刚1. 超声射频信号定量分析发现关节软骨退行性变的可行性研究[J]. 中国医疗设备, 2019, 34(5): 11-14.
LI Shanshan1, WANG Yuanyuan2, SUN Yang1, HE Qiong2, YANG Zhen1, LUO Jianwen2, CUI Ligang1. Feasibility Study on Detection of Articular Cartilage Degeneration by Quantitative Analysis Based
on Ultrasound Radio Frequency Signal. China Medical Devices, 2019, 34(5): 11-14.
