Non-invasive joint evaluation

Abstract

Disclosed, in one general aspect, is a musculoskeletal imaging system that includes a source of feature data extracted from imaging data resulting from imaging acquisitions from joints of different individuals affected by different diseases, and this feature data includes disease characteristic categorization information for a plurality of disease categories. A comparison module is operative to compare patient imaging data resulting from an imaging acquisition from a joint of a patient with the feature data. The comparison module is also operative to provide at least one categorization indicator for the patient imaging data that indicates a correspondence between spatial information in the patient imaging data and the disease categories for which there is extracted categorization information in the feature data.

1 - 49 . (canceled) 
     
     
         50 . A musculoskeletal imaging system, comprising:
 a source of patient imaging data resulting from an imaging acquisition from a joint of a patient,   a source of feature data extracted from imaging data resulting from imaging acquisitions from joints of different individuals affected by different diseases, wherein the feature data includes disease characteristic categorization information for a plurality of disease categories, wherein the feature data further includes further patient characteristics extracted from additional sources including patient symptom and demographic information, wherein the source of feature data is operative to provide feature data that expresses information for a plurality of segmented patient scans that have been normalized and aggregated, wherein the source of feature data is operative to provide feature data for at least some individuals having healthy cartilage, wherein the disease characteristic categorization information includes a plurality of subcategories for different patient groupings including symptom and patient demographic groupings, wherein the source of feature data includes categorization information for a global significant cartilage loss category, for a global cartilage loss tendency category, and for at least one localized significant cartilage loss category, wherein the source of feature data includes categorization information for a global significant cartilage loss category, for a global cartilage loss tendency category, and for at least one localized significant cartilage loss category, wherein the source of patient imaging data is operative to provide a fully automatically segmented imaging data set, wherein the source of patient imaging data is operative to provide a imaging data set having a resolution that is significantly lower than a resolution for the acquisitions on which the feature data is based, wherein the source of patient imaging data includes digital identifiers associated with imaging data for a particular patient, wherein the source of patient imaging data includes error correcting codes associated with imaging data for a particular patient, wherein the source of patient imaging data includes a format identifier associated with imaging data for a particular patient, wherein the source of patient imaging data is a source of magnetic imaging data resulting from a magnetic resonance imaging acquisition from the joint of the patient.   a comparison module that is operative to compare the patient imaging data with the feature data, and is operative to provide at least one categorization indicator for the patient imaging data that indicates a correspondence between spatial information in the patient imaging data and the disease categories for which there is extracted categorization information in the feature data, wherein the comparison module is operative to provide a confidence level for the categorization indicator,   an aggregate result analysis module operative to perform statistical analysis of results from the comparison module for a plurality of patients, wherein the aggregate result analysis module includes correlative logic operative to determine relationships between treatment methods and categorization indicators for the plurality of patients,   a classification adjustment module responsive to the comparison module and operative to adjust the categorization information based on results from the comparison module,   a patient verification module, and   a follow-up module operative to identify trends in changes to the categorization indicator over time.   
     
     
         51 . The apparatus of  claim 50  further including an outgoing communication interface responsive to the comparison module and operative to provide the categorization indicator to a remote location. 
     
     
         52 . The apparatus of  claim 50  wherein the source of patient imaging data comprises part of an incoming communication interface. 
     
     
         53 . The apparatus of  claim 50  wherein the source of feature data is a source of imaging data resulting from statistical analysis of image data acquired from the joints affected by different diseases. 
     
     
         54 . The apparatus of  claim 53  wherein the source of feature data is a source of imaging data resulting from dispersion analysis of image data acquired from the joints affected by different diseases. 
     
     
         55 . The apparatus of  claim 50  wherein the source of feature data is a source of imaging data resulting from principal component analysis of image data acquired from the joints affected by different diseases. 
     
     
         56 . The apparatus of  claim 50  wherein the source of feature data includes categorization information for a global significant cartilage loss category, for a global cartilage loss tendency category, for a medial condyle significant loss and medial trochlea loss tendency category, and for a medial condyle significant loss, trochlea significant loss, and medial condyle loss category. 
     
     
         57 . The apparatus of  claim 50  wherein the digital identifiers include patient identifiers, physician identifiers, and joint identifiers.