Joo Y, Moon JY, Han JY, Bang YS, Kang KN, Lim YS, Choi YS, Kim YU. Usefulness of the acromioclavicular joint cross-sectional area as a diagnostic image parameter of acromioclavicular osteoarthritis. World J Clin Cases 2022; 10(7): 2087-2094 [PMID: 35321173 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i7.2087]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Young-Uk Kim, MD, PhD, Research Fellow, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Catholic Kwandong University of Korea College of Medicine, International St. Mary’s Hospital, Simgokro 100Gil, Incheon 22711, South Korea. uk201@hanmail.net
Research Domain of This Article
Orthopedics
Article-Type of This Article
Case Control Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Mar 6, 2022; 10(7): 2087-2094 Published online Mar 6, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i7.2087
Usefulness of the acromioclavicular joint cross-sectional area as a diagnostic image parameter of acromioclavicular osteoarthritis
Young Joo, Jee Youn Moon, Jung Youn Han, Yun-Sic Bang, Keum Nae Kang, Young Su Lim, Young-Soon Choi, Young-Uk Kim
Young Joo, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, CHA Ilsan Medical Center, School of Medicine, CHA University, Ilsan, Gyeonggi-do 10414, South Korea
Jee Youn Moon, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital College of Medicine, Seoul 03080, South Korea
Jung Youn Han, Yun-Sic Bang, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, CHA Bundang Medical Center, School of Medicine, Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do 13496, South Korea
Keum Nae Kang, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, National Police Hospital, Seoul 05715, South Korea
Young Su Lim, Young-Soon Choi, Young-Uk Kim, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Catholic Kwandong University, College of Medicine, International St. Mary’s Hospital, Incheon 22711, South Korea
Author contributions: Kim Y and Joo Y designed the experiment; Moon JY, Han JY, Bang Y, Choi Y, and Lim YS collected the data; Kim Y, Joo Y, and Kang KN analyzed and interpreted data; Kim Y and Joo Y wrote the article.
Institutional review board statement: This retrospective study was approved by the Ethics Committee of The Catholic Kwandong Medical School, No. IS21RISI0048.
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to this study because the retrospective analysis used anonymous data that were obtained after each patient agreed to treatment by written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Young-Uk Kim, MD, PhD, Research Fellow, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Catholic Kwandong University of Korea College of Medicine, International St. Mary’s Hospital, Simgokro 100Gil, Incheon 22711, South Korea. uk201@hanmail.net
Received: June 25, 2021 Peer-review started: June 25, 2021 First decision: July 26, 2021 Revised: August 6, 2021 Accepted: January 20, 2022 Article in press: January 20, 2022 Published online: March 6, 2022 Processing time: 250 Days and 1.4 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Acromioclavicular joint (ACJ) space narrowing has been considered to be an important diagnostic image parameter of ACJ osteoarthritis (ACJO). However, the morphology of the ACJ space is irregular because of osteophyte formation, subchondral irregularity, capsular distention, sclerosis, and erosion. Therefore, we created the ACJ cross-sectional area (ACJCSA) as a new diagnostic image parameter to assess the irregular morphologic changes of the ACJ.
AIM
To hypothesize that the ACJCSA is a new diagnostic image parameter for ACJO.
METHODS
ACJ samples were obtained from 35 patients with ACJO and 30 healthy individuals who underwent shoulder magnetic resonance (S-MR) imaging that revealed no evidence of ACJO. Oblique coronal, T2-weighted, fat-suppressed S-MR images were acquired at the ACJ level from the two groups. We measured the ACJCSA and the ACJ space width (ACJSW) at the ACJ on the S-MR images using our imaging analysis program. The ACJCSA was measured as the cross-sectional area of the ACJ. The ACJSW was measured as the narrowest point between the acromion and the clavicle.
RESULTS
The average ACJCSA was 39.88 ± 10.60 mm2 in the normal group and 18.80 ± 5.13 mm2 in the ACJO group. The mean ACJSW was 3.51 ± 0.58 mm in the normal group and 2.02 ± 0.48 mm in the ACJO group. ACJO individuals had significantly lower ACJCSA and ACJSW than the healthy individuals. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses demonstrated that the most suitable ACJCSA cutoff score was 26.14 mm2, with 91.4% sensitivity and 90.0% specificity.
CONCLUSION
The optimal ACJSW cutoff score was 2.37 mm, with 88.6% sensitivity and 96.7% specificity. Even though both the ACJCSA and ACJSW were significantly associated with ACJO, the ACJCSA was a more sensitive diagnostic image parameter.
Core Tip: An acromioclavicular joint (ACJ) space narrowing has been considered to be an important diagnostic image parameter of ACJ osteoarthritis. However, the morphology of ACJ space is irregular, because of osteophyte formation, subchondral irregularity, capsular distention, sclerosis, and erosions. Therefore, we created the ACJ cross-sectional area as a new diagnostic image parameter to assess the irregular morphologic change of ACJ.
