ABSTRACT
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease that affects
nearly 80% of individuals by the time they reach age 65 [1]. The
near universal prevalence of this disorder in older populations
coupledwith an absence of effective treatments aside from symptom
management makes OA one of the costliest diseases to treat,
and it is responsible for nearly 4% of US health care related
expenditures [2]. The disease is phenomenologically described by
the degenerative loss of cartilage found at joints, which normally
insures that bones move past each other non-abrasively during limb
motion. Progression of OA eventually leads to direct bone-on-bone
contact and may result in wear-related morphological deformations
in bone structure, limited range of motion, and acute pain. The
development of new and preventative treatments for OA is hindered
by the absence of appropriate radiological tools for assessing the
condition and detailed morphology of cartilage tissue, making the
development of such radiological techniques an important step in
the development of effective treatments.
