A Topological Approach To Quantitation Of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Clinical radiologists require not only visual representations of MRI and CT data but also quantitative measurements representing the progression of chronic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis of the knee. Since inflammation is confined to a thin irregularly shaped region called the synovial capsule it is necessary to segment a suitable approximation of the capsule, then compute quantitative measurements within the segmented region. We report preliminary results on applying topological tools to identify the desired region visually and to extract quantitative information, along with a protocol for clinical validation of the method.