Comparison of Joint Space Width Determinations in Grade I and II Knee Osteoarthritis Patients Using Manual and Automatic Measurements.

BACKGROUND: Examination of the knee to assess the narrowing of the joint gap or joint space width (JSW) is commonly done by manually checking radiographs and measuring the JSW using a ruler. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to compare manual and automatic measurements with the diagnosis of grade I and grade II knee osteoarthritis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 40 patients with the criteria for primary osteoarthritis (OA), aged 46 to 65 years old had knee OA grades of either I or II. The knee image was evaluated by a computer program and a radiologist manually viewing and measuring the JSW joint gap using a ruler. RESULTS: The results showed there were no differences in the measurement of JSW medial and JSW lateral manually in grade I and grade II knee OA, at p=0.605 and p=0.344, respectively. Whereas in the automatic measurements, there was a difference between JSW medial and lateral JSW in grade I and grade II knee OA, each with p<0.001. The manual JSW measurement between medial JSW and lateral JSW in grade I and II showed that the medial and lateral knee joints have a similar distance. In the automatic, the average value of measurement lateral JSW in OA grades I and II was greater than the medial JSW. CONCLUSION: Automatic measurements showed that both of medial and lateral JSW at grade II OA knee were narrower than the results at grade I. Automatic measurement of JSW results was more consistent than the manual measurement method.

Underlying Physical Process for the Unusual Spectral Quality of Double Pulse Laser Spectroscopy in He Gas.

This study is aimed at elucidating the physical processes responsible for the excellent spectral qualities in terms of full width at half-maximum (fwhm) and signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio shown in a special double pulse laser-induced spectroscopy. Apart from the use of atmospheric He ambient gas, the achievement is due to the first laser for generating He gas plasma and the subsequent use of the second laser pulse for target ablation, in opposite order of the two-laser operations in conventional double pulse LIBS. This setup allows adjustments of the many experimental parameters to yield the optimal condition resulting in 0.03 nm fwhm and around 1000× S/N ratio of Cu I 521.8 nm and far surpasses the spectral qualities obtained by other techniques. This is obtained by allowing the crucial separation of the target plasma from the He gas plasma and thereby enabling the He-assisted excitation (HAE) to play its full and unique role of nonthermal excitation, taking advantage of metastable excited He atoms in the He plasma and the Penning-like energy transfer process. This excellent performance is further verified by its successful application analysis of Cr in low alloy steel samples, with the presence of smooth linear calibration lines, signifying the absence of the self-absorption effect well-known in ordinary LIBS.