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EDITORIAL article

Front. Physiol.
Sec. Medical Physics and Imaging
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fphys.2024.1535622
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances in Musculoskeletal Imaging View all 5 articles

Editorial: Advances in Musculoskeletal Imaging

Provisionally accepted
Victor Casula Victor Casula 1Simo Saarakkala Simo Saarakkala 1,2Jukka Hirvasniemi Jukka Hirvasniemi 3,4*
  • 1 University of Oulu, Oulu, Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland
  • 2 Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland
  • 3 Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands
  • 4 Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Musculoskeletal disorders such as osteoarthritis, bone fractures, osteoporosis, or ligament injuries are highly prevalent conditions affecting muscles, bones, joints, and adjacent connective tissues. In 2020, they affected over 1.63 billion people worldwide (GBD 2021 Other Musculoskeletal Disorders Collaborators, 2023). Musculoskeletal disorders cause various symptoms such as pain and mobility limitations, and they have a tremendous impact on the quality of life of an individual imposing a large economic burden to a society (Liu et al., 2022;Parto et al., 2023). The underlying pathophysiological processes and clinical manifestations vary depending on the affected tissue and specific disorder.Imaging provides visualization of the anatomy and physiological processes of the body and plays an important role in the diagnostics of musculoskeletal disorders both in clinical practice and research. Conventional radiography and computed tomography (CT) are usually used to assess changes in the mineralized tissues, such as subchondral bones, whereas magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is best suited for assessing changes in the soft tissues, for example damage in tendons, ligaments, menisci, and cartilage. Novel imaging, image processing, and image analysis techniques have a great potential to enable earlier diagnosis and deeper understanding of musculoskeletal disorders and pathophysiological processes related to them (Kijowski and Fritz 2023) The aim of this Research Topic was to collect articles showcasing applications of novel and innovative imaging, image processing, and image analysis techniques for assessing musculoskeletal disorders and the underlying pathophysiological processes. Although musculoskeletal conditions can affect various joints, and no specific restrictions were placed on this research topic, the articles included in this research topic focused on disorders involving the spine, spinal joints, and associated muscles.

    Keywords: Medical Image Analysis, Musculoskelatal disorders, Magnetic Resonace Imaging (MRI), artificial intelligence - AI, Spine, Muscle, Spondyloarthritis

    Received: 27 Nov 2024; Accepted: 28 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Casula, Saarakkala and Hirvasniemi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jukka Hirvasniemi, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.