Spatially matching morphometric assessment of cartilage and subchondral bone in osteoarthritic human knee joint with micro-computed tomography.

•Tibia plateaus of advanced OA patients were scanned with standard and EPIC micro-CT to assess cartilage and subchondral bone quality•A new semi-automatic workflow is introduced to generate spatially matching ROIs in cartilage and subchondral bone, based on cartilage damage•Identification of cartilage defect from microCT was verified by conventional histopathology and macroscopic photo imaging.•Bone fraction, BMD, and trabecular thickness were significantly associated with damage of the overlying cartilage