Patent ID: 8582843

Claim:
Apparatus for analysing the morphometry of a human knee joint, the apparatus comprising: image receiving means for receiving a digital image of a knee joint; image analysis means comprising a master-ASM (Active Shape Model) configured to identify a set of landmark points on said image, and one or more sub-ASMs configured to identify a subset of the landmark points the master-ASM is configured to identify, wherein said set of landmark points includes points which define regions of the knee formed by the femur and the tibia, the ASMs being further configured to generate an image data-set from the co-ordinates of said landmark points; and data comparison means for comparing said image data-set with one or more comparative data-sets to thereby obtain value(s) for one or more output modes which characterise the variation of the image data-set from the comparative data-set(s), to thereby provide an indication of the presence and/or severity of osteoarthritis in the knee and/or the risk of the knee joint developing osteoarthritis.