EARLY DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUE FOR KNEE OSTEOARTHROSIS Russian patent published in 2018 - IPC A61B6/03 

FIELD: medicine.

SUBSTANCE: invention includes an X-ray examination of the knee to obtain an X-ray image. The X-ray image is digitized. In the digital image of the knee joint, an area of interest is selected in the region of the subchondral bone of the medial tibial plateau, which is converted into a binary form, the fractal size is calculated by the squares method. At the values from 1.726 to 1.739, osteoarthritis of stage I is determined, at the values from 1.740 to 1.767, osteoarthritis of stage II is determined, at the values from 1.768 to 1.772 osteoarthritis of stage III is determined, and at the values in the range from 1.773 to 1.787, osteoarthritis of stage IV is determined. Fractal size values from 1.700 to 1.725 correspond to normal.

EFFECT: revealed presence of even a slight narrowing of the joint gap and appointment of timely treatment, increased safety of the diagnostic study, since the radiation load on the bone marrow and internal organs is low enough that it allows to conduct studies in persons of any age group, the method is simple enough for application.

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