Date of Award


Document Type


Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)



First Advisor

Bruce Beynnon

Second Advisor

Yves Dubief


ACL injury has been shown to have long-lasting and severe consequences on the different structures of the knee such as the articular cartilage and meniscus. Cartilage thickness changes in particular are indicative of osteoarthritic changes in the tibiofemoral joint. While there has been significant research focused on cartilage changes of the tibia and femur, there has been little work looking at patellar cartilage. The following goals were set forth for this study. First, to establish a robust coordinate system to accurately determine the location and orientation of the patella. Secondly, to determine the effects of ACL injury on patellar cartilage thickness. Twenty-one individuals (10 males, 11 females) were studied. All individuals had suffered first time ACL injuries to one of their knees. MRI data from both the healthy and injured knees were collected an average of 4 ± 0.9 years. Using MRI data, the bone and cartilage surfaces were manually segmented and imported into MATLAB for study. Differences in cartilage thickness values between the healthy and unhealthy knees within individuals was the primary measure of analysis. Analysis revealed a total of 9 square millimeters of cartilage surface area that were statistically significant. Four square millimeters of significant difference were found in males in the medial superior compartment, (mean thickness difference = -0.381 mm, with SD = 0.084mm, indicating thinning). Five square millimeters of significant difference were found in females in the medial inferior compartment (mean thickness difference = 0.551 mm, SD = 0.015mm, indicating thickening). This suggests regional and sex related cartilage thickness changes occur following ACL injury, surgery, and 4 year follow-up.



Number of Pages

71 p.