Guwahati: A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati has successfully developed OsteoHRNet, a Deep Learning (DL)-based framework that utilises artificial intelligence (AI) to assess the severity of Knee Osteoarthritis (OA) from X-ray images. This groundbreaking model can accurately detect the level of disease severity and aid medical practitioners in diagnosing patients remotely.
Knee Osteoarthritis is the most prevalent musculoskeletal disorder worldwide, affecting a significant portion of the population. While MRI and CT scans offer three-dimensional images of the knee joints for accurate diagnosis, their availability is limited and they can be expensive. X-ray imaging, on the other hand, is widely accessible and more cost-effective for routine diagnosis.
To enhance the automatic detection of knee osteoarthritis from X-ray images or radiographs, researchers at IIT Guwahati have focused their efforts on developing an AI-based model capable of assessing the severity of Knee OA.
Palash Ghosh, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at IIT Guwahati, explained, "Compared to other approaches, our model can precisely identify the medically crucial area to determine the severity level of knee osteoarthritis, thus enabling medical practitioners to accurately detect the disease at an early stage."
The research conducted by Rohit Kumar Jain, an MTech Data Science graduate, under the joint supervision of Prof. Arijit Sur and Palash Ghosh, has been accepted for publication in the journal Multimedia Tools and Applications. The research team also includes former PhD students of IIT Guwahati, Prasen Kumar Sharma and Sibaji Gaj.