Plain radiography usual method to detect degeneration in the\nsubtalar and talonavicluar joints. MRI is a better way to fully characterise\nnon-ossified structures, such as articular cartilage, marrow tissue and synovial\nfluid and therefore detect changes of arthritis. The motivation behind this\nstudy was to develop a quantitative way to score arthritic changes to the subtalar\nand talonavicular joints using MRI. The developed system will then be\nused as a research tool and in the close assessment and monitoring of patients\nwith hindfoot degenerative disease. Methods: The MRI scans of thirty consecutive\nsubjects with foot and ankle pain were retrospectively evaluated. Images\nwere interpreted independently by three musculoskeletal radiologists in\norder to determine intra-observer reliability as well as the inter-observer reliability\nof the score. Five features of osteoarthritis were scored in the Subtalar\njoint and the Talonavicular joint. These were cartilage morphology, subarticular\nmarrow, subarticular cyst, marginal osteophytes and synovitis. Results:\nFor the 30 MRI scans the mean score for the Subtalar joint ranged from 11.7\nto 14.4 and for the Talonavicular joint ranged from 3.7 to 5.6. The inter-\nobserver correlation for the Subtalar joint between the three readers\nranged between 0.53 and 0.83 for the individual features but overall was excellent\nat 0.76. For the Talonavicular joint the total correlation was good at\n0.67. The inter-observer ICC for the total score was 0.75 which showed excellent\nagreement between the three readers. The total intra-observer correlation\nwas excellent. Conclusions: The current work has shown excellent reliability\nfor the scoring system. It will be a useful tool to diagnose and monitor disease\nprogression of the Subtalar and Talonavicluar joints.
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