How can we recognize early osteoarthritis by in-vivo examination?

In order to quantity alterations between early and severe osteoarthritis a comparison is made between four different model parameters corresponding to the standard fractional viscoelastic body obtained from not long ago reported results on ex-vivo stress-relaxation behavior in two different osteoarthritic, ICRS graded, human articular cartilage for both states. The pattern of change corresponding to osteoarthritis characterization was recognized. Recently, combined Dual Fluoroscopic Imaging System and MRI technique were used to investigate time-dependent contact behavior of tibiofemoral cartilage of human subjects in-vivo during the first 300 s after applying a constant full body weight and determine whether there are differences in cartilage contact responses between the medial and lateral compartments. In the present work we intend to use the results of the later creep experiment within system identification procedure in order to determine four parameters describing cartilage state in-vivo. Thus we may speculate that repeating this in-vivo creep experiment, after an appropriate period of time for the same individua, and getting the new values of model parameters may yield the answer to the posed question.