Facet joint osteoarthritis (FJOA) is a prominent clinical hallmark of degenerative spine disorders. During disease progression, cartilage and subchondral bone tissues undergo increased turnover and remodeling. The structural changes to the subchondral tissue of FJOA have not been studied thus far. In this study, we performed a micro computed tomography (µCT) study of the subchondral cortical plate (SCP) and trabecular bone (STB) in FJOA and determined osteoarthritis-specific alterations. Twenty-four patients (11 male, 13 female, median age 65) scheduled for decompression and stabilization surgery for degenerative spinal stenosis were included in this study. FJOA specimens were harvested during surgery and analyzed by µCT. Bone volume fraction (BV/TV), trabecular thickness (Tb.Th), trabecular separation (Tb.Sp) and trabecular number (Tb.N) were evaluated using CT Analyser. Lumbar facet joints without chondropathy from cadaveric specimens (9 male, 6 female, median age 57) served as healthy controls. Age-, gender- and disease-specific effects were identified by ANOVA (Introduction
Methods
