Quantitative Imaging Excellence for Research & Clinical Trials
We help make your research and structure-modifying clinical trials faster, more efficient, and more meaningful—in compliance with regulatory requirements.
About Chondrometrics
Our Journey
- Founded 2003 and headquarteredin Freilassing (near Salzburg)
- >60 funded academic grants & subcontracts from 9 countries
- >10 industry-initiated clinical trials
- 50.000+ (human & animal) joints read
- Your trial benefits from decades of experience and extensive prior data
Our Motivation
- More than 500 million people world-wide live with osteoarthritis (OA), a major cause of pain and disability
- No approved drug (DMOAD) therapy currently exists for effectively modifying joint structural pathology in OA
- To provide imaging biomarkers that accelerate your clinical development program of disease-modifying therapy
Our Expertise
- Class IIa Medical Device software platform (EU MDR 2017/745, Annex IX)
- EN ISO 13485:2021 certified QMS, compliant with GCP, 21 CFR Part 11, and relevant industry standards
- 200+ journal publications & 40.000+ citations (HF > 100)
- Regulatory compliance for your trial
Our Competitive Edge
- 20+ years industry expertise
- Strong SAB of OA experts
- Quality-controlled manual gold-standard and technically/clinically validated, fully automated segmentation, using AI (CNN) technology
- Scalable automated analysis for your trial, with economic benefits
Our Vision
- To establish imaging biomarkers as regulatory-accepted surrogate endpoints of clinical outcomes
- To establish AI-powered automated analysis of joint tissues & responsive measures of structural pathology
- To advance quantitative imaging to make your clinical trials efficient, meaningful, and cost-effective
Our Biomarker Portfolio
- Cartilage morphology (e.g. thickness)
- Cartilage composition (e.g. T2)
- Meniscus morphology & position
- Bone, muscle & adipose tissue morphology
- Infrapatellar fat pad (IPFP) radiomics
- (Effusion) synovitis morphology
Latest News
Congratulations to Kalpana Sharma on successfully defending her PhD thesis at Paracelsus Medizinische Privatuniversität (PMU) Salzburg. She presented her work...
The redesigned Chondrometrics Website and its flyer are now live, ready to be explored. Both media products showcase who Chondrometrics...
We are overly happy that our review on: “Advances in Cartilage Imaging Techniques”, including Felix Eckstein and Wolfgang Wirth as...
After announcing the company’s participation in the IHI-PROBE (Patient Relevant Osteoarthritis endpoints using Big data Evaluation) project, launched on December...
Chondrometrics authors publish a review on clinical validation of automated AI based segmentation of articular tissues in a special issue...
As of January 1st, 2026 , Wolfgang Wirth has officially assumed the role of the CEO, taking over from Felix...
APPROACH (Applied Public-Private Research enabling OsteoArthritis Clinical Headway) was a European Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) project designed to improve stratification...
With the year ending, it is time to reflect what has been achieved in 2025 Thanks to our industry and...
ACR Open Rheumatol. 2025 Sep;7(9):e70085 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40977252/ With Jamie Collins from Harvard University and Chondrometrics SAB member as a first author,...
The Chondrometrics SAB met between October 11 and 15, 2025. It was a most inspiring week, where science, technology, and...
This year, the annual company retreat and training camp took place on the magical, traffic-free island of Frauenchiemsee (Chiemgau, Bavaria)...
The term virtual is now everywhere: Reality (VR) | Machine (VM) | Assistant (VA) | Network (VPN) | Currency (VC)...
Double Ace: A new original study published in Annals of Internal Medicine, a prestigious and influential medical journal that shapes...
Cambridge, UK - the perfect location, and Tom Turmezei - the perfect host (Fig. 1)
Chondrometrics authors an oral presentation at the largest European Rheuma Conference
The top Chondrometrics infographic designs have been “crowned” by public vote
Chondrometrics (Co-) Authors Present 3 Oral and 11 Poster Presentations in at Songdo Convensia in Incheon
Chondrometrics authors publish two concept papers on clinical trials in Skeletal Radiology and Osteoarthritis Imaging (OSTIMA)
First company training meeting in 2025 in Munich on March 13th
Boosting visibility and appeal of our scientific contributions
Representatives of Chondrometrics GmbH have published 15 papers in 2024, 11 of them in lead (first- or senior) author positions
Visits to David Hunter and team at the University of Sydney (NSW), the MUSQ retreat in Burleigh (Queensland), the QMSKI...
Representatives of Chondrometrics GmbH have submitted 4 abstracts as authors, and 9 abstracts as co-authors, to the OARSI 2025 Congress...
Final research meeting in Salzburg, and 10 year anniversary of 4P Pharma in Paris
Technical and clinical validation of deep-learning based analysis of laminar properties of knee articular cartilage in two models of early...
The design of a sample rapid magnetic resonance imaging acquisition protocol supporting assessment of multiple articular tissues and pathologies in...
Comparisons between unblinded and blinded analysis in the FORWARD RCT treatment phase, and blinded re-analysis of the post-treatment phase
The team of Chondrometrics GmbH and the Research Program for Imaging at Paracelsus Medizinische Privatuniversität presenting at the IWOAI in...
Sexual Dimorphism in Articular & Peri-Articular Tissue Anatomy – Key to Understanding Sex-Differences in Osteoarthritis?
Annual team meeting & training retreat at the Wengerhof, July 26-28
The team of Chondrometrics GmbH and partners present a poster titled: "Unbiased Analysis of Knee Cartilage Thickness Change Over Three...
Breaking Barriers Through Multi-Disciplinary Osteoarthritis Research - the OARSI World Congress in Vienna, April 18-21, 2024
David Hunter and Felix Eckstein to Vienna via 4 rivers and by bike
The team of Chondrometrics GmbH and the Research Program for Imaging at Paracelsus Medizinische Privatuniversität presenting at the World Congress...
30 Years of MRI-based cartilage & bone morphometry in knee osteoarthritis: From correlation to clinical trials
After initial meetings in 2019 & 2020, Chondrometrics organized the 3rd SABM in February 2024, now in the new office...
The team of Chondrometrics GmbH and the Research Program for Imaging at Paracelsus Medical University presenting at the Imaging Workshop...
In April 2004, Chondrometrics was founded in Munich, Germany, as a spin-off of the Ludwig Maximilians Universität (LMU) München by...
The team of Chondrometrics GmbH and the Research Program for Imaging at Paracelsus Medizinische Privatuniversität presenting at the World Congress...
Latest Publications
Exploratory analysis of the 2-year changes in knee cartilage thickness and transverse relaxation time (T2) in ACL-injured versus healthy participants
Herger S, Wirth W, Nüesch C, Bieri O, Egloff C, Eckstein F, Mündermann A
Osteoarthritis and Cartilage Open
Objective: To investigate the 2-year changes in cartilage thickness and transverse relaxation time (T2) in magnetic resonance images (MRI) of ACL-injured (ACL_in) and...
Advances in cartilage imaging techniques
Guermazi A, Eckstein F, Gold G, Hayashi D, Jarraya M, Kogan F, Li X, Link TM,...
Nat Rev Rheumatol
Articular cartilage is crucial for joint function; however, it has limited regenerative capacity when damaged, a hallmark of many rheumatic diseases. Non-invasive...
Skeletal interfaces in health and disease – Where two worlds interact: The Salzburg Leopoldina Symposium 2025 – Bridging disciplines and perspectives
Eckstein F, Putz R.
Ann Anat
Introduction: The Leopoldina Symposium on “Skeletal Interfaces in Health and Disease” at Paracelsus Medical University (Salzburg, Austria) gathered an interdisciplinary community of young...
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Transverse Relaxation Time (T2) For Non-Invasive Assessment of Cartilage Composition -from Method Development to Automated Processing of Large Clinical Cohorts – A Selfie Review of 15 Years of Funding & Publication
Eckstein F, Bangerter N, Wirth W.
Paracelsus Proceedings of Experimental Medicine (PPExMed)
MRI has transformed medical imaging and research by enabling detailed 3D visualization of soft tissue anatomy. But it also provides insight into...
Clinical validation of fully automated (peri-)articular tissue analysis for assessing osteoarthritis progression: A narrative review
Wirth W, Eder J
Osteoarthr Cartil Open
Numerous studies have presented fully automated techniques for assessing structural osteoarthritis (OA) progression, with recent work increasingly relying on deep learning (DL)-based...
High Tibial Osteotomy for Medial Compartment Knee Osteoarthritis : A Randomized Trial With Parallel Preference Arm
Birmingham TB, Primeau CA, Moyer RF, Bryant DM, Ma J, Leitch KM, Wirth W, Deg...
Ann Intern Med
Objective: We examined whether the trajectory of femorotibial cartilage loss differs between knees meeting a clinically defined virtual knee replacement (vKR) status based...
Magnetic Resonance Imaging Biomarkers of Knee Osteoarthritis Progression
Collins JE, Mesenbrink P, Jin R, Dam EB, Deveza LA, Eckstein F, Guermazi A, L...
ACR Open Rheumatol
Objective: The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) OA Biomarkers Consortium aims to identify, develop, and qualify biomarkers to support drug...
Fluctuation of Bone Marrow Lesions and Inflammatory MRI Markers over 2 Years and Concurrent Associations with Quantitative Cartilage Loss
Frank W Roemer, Mylène P Jansen, Susanne Maschek, Simon C Mastbergen, Anne-K...
Cartilage
ObjectiveTo assess whether change of semiquantitatively magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-defined bone marrow lesions (BMLs) and inflammatory markers is associated with change in...
Comparison between coronal FLASH and sagittal double echo steady state MRI in detecting longitudinal cartilage thickness change by fully automated segmentation – Data from the FNIH biomarker cohort
Eckstein F, Chaudhari AS, Hunter DJ, Wirth W
Osteoarthr Cartil Open
Objective: Artificial intelligence (AI-) based automated cartilage analysis demonstrated similar sensitivity to change and only slighty inferior differentiation between radiographic progressors and non-progressors...
Cartilage loss is greater in knees with virtual joint replacement status than in matched controls without
Eckstein F, Wirth W, Guermazi A, Roemer F, Nevitt M, Ladel C, Sharma L, Hunte...
Osteoarthr Cartil Open
Objective: We examined whether the trajectory of femorotibial cartilage loss differs between knees meeting a clinically defined virtual knee replacement (vKR) status based...
A fully-automated technique for cartilage morphometry in knees with severe radiographic osteoarthritis – Method development and validation
Wirth W, Eckstein F
Osteoarthr Cartil Open
Objective: Denuded areas of subchondral bone (dAB) pose a challenge for fully automated segmentation of articular cartilage and subchondral bone in knees with...
Clinical validation of fully automated cartilage transverse relaxation time (T2) and thickness analysis using quantitative DESS magnetic resonance imaging
Wirth W, Herger S, Maschek S, Wisser A, Bieri O, Eckstein F, Mündermann A
MAGMA
Objective: To clinically validate a fully automated cartilage segmentation technique from quantitative double-echo steady-state (qDESS) MRI supporting simultaneous estimation of cartilage T2 and...
Unbiased analysis of knee cartilage thickness change over three years after sprifermin vs. placebo treatment – A post-hoc analysis from the phase 2B FORWARD study
Felix Eckstein, Susanne Maschek, Wolfgang Wirth, Christoph Ladel, Asger Reins...
Osteoarthritis and Cartilage Open
Objective: Post-treatment cartilage morphometry in the FORWARD study was performed without blinding to MRI acquisition order, involving potential reader bias. Here we obtained...
Gallery Highlights
ACR_v74
Journal of Anatomy
Arthritis Care & Research
Herger ACL qDESS longitudinal
Clinical validation of automated cartilage T2 and thickness analysis using qDESS MRI
Patellofemoral damage and femorotibial cartilage loss over 24 months
Voxel based laminar cartilage T2 for detecting longitudinal group differences
Impact of MRI exclusions on recruitment and cartilage loss in advanced knee OA
Sprifermin efficacy across demographic strata in knee OA
Eckstein et al. (2025) OAC open
Kwoh et al. (2025) OAC
Wirth et al. (2025) OAC open
Collins et al. (2025) ACR open
Eckstein et al. (2025) OAC open
Birmingham et al. (2025) Ann Int Med
Eckstein et al. (2024) QIMS
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NRR 10 (No 1) Jan 2014
NRR 10 (No 1-12) Jan – Dec 2014
SAR 45 (no 3) December 2015
SAR 45 (No 6) June 2016
