Recent years have brought rapid developments in computational image analysis in musculo-skeletal radiology. Meanwhile the algorithms have reached a maturity that makes initial clinical use feasible. Applications range from joint space measurement to erosion quantification, and from fracture detection to the assessment of alignment angles. Current results of computational image analysis in radiography are very promising, but some fundamental issues remain to be clarified, among which the definition of the optimal trade off between automatization and operator-dependency, the integration of these tools into clinical work flow and last not least the proof of incremental clinical benefit of these methods.
aComputational Image Analysis and Radiology Lab (CIR), Department of Radiology, Medical University Vienna, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
bPattern Recognition and Image Processing Group, Department of Computer Aided Automation, Vienna University of Technology, Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10/020, A-1040 Vienna, Austria
cInstitute for Computer Graphics and Vision, Graz University of Technology, Inffeldgasse 16, A-8010 Graz, Austria