This is a Shannon award providing partial support for the research projects that fall short of the assigned Institute's funding range but are in the margin of excellence. The Shannon award is intended to provide support to test the feasibility of the approach; develop further tests and refine research techniques; perform secondary analysis of available data sets; or conduct discrete projects that can demonstrate the PI's research capabilities or lend additional weight to an already meritorious application. The abstract below is taken from the original document submitted by the principal investigator. DESCRIPTION: (Adapted from the application): The objective is to validate ultrasound techniques to assess early surface roughness changes in articular cartilage specimens as a sign of early osteoarthritis. The investigators propose to quantify these surface changes by backscattered ultrasound, taking into account global surface curvature by using focussed transducers and using a robust angular scattering technique to measure the angle dependent power data, in which the integrated squared pressure amplitude over a finite time window is measured as a function of incident acoustic angle. The applicants will extend the previous work in phantoms to validate the determination of roughness of articular cartilage surfaces and will evaluate two types (intravascular and intra- articular) of ultrasound catheter transducer system in cadaver knees.
