CHONDROMETRICS JOURNAL PUBLICATION SUMMARY OF 2025

With the year ending, it is time to reflect what has been achieved in 2025

Thanks to our industry and academic partners, our pipeline was well filled, with several large and small clinical trials making great progress. Thanks for the hard work performed by our team, and for driving these projects.

The data produced by Chondrometrics did not remain in the dark, but was synthesized and made public. Our thanks go to all who actively participated, contributing to the advancement of science and knowledge in osteoarthritis research.

Six original co-authored publications came from the APPROACH project, and three from OA BIO, including one review. The FNIH2 (PROGRESS OA) study was published  as well as an interventional placebo-controlled trial on high tibial osteotomy, with an impressive effect size on cartilage thickness and pain. Two published studies were centred around virtual knee replacement (vKR), relating longitudinal cartilage loss to clinical outcomes. Four focussed on (clinical) validation of fully automated, AI-based analysis of cartilage composition (T2) by MESE and DESS MRI, and of cartilage thickness, with two reviews summarizing work on this topic.
We further produced three perspectives: one on imaging science, one on imaging endpoints, and one on the Leopoldina symposium “Skeletal Interfaces”. Finally, we were involved in a comprehensive review on cartilage imaging in Nature Rheumatology Reviews (NRR).

Our special thanks go to these authors: Neal Bangerter; Eva Bax; Anne C. Bay-Jensen; Francis Berenbaum; Francisco Blanco; Mikael Boesen; Johanna Bolander; Nicholas Brisson; Akshay Chaudhari; Erik Dam; Jana Eder; Florian Fleckenstein; Robert Giffin; Garry Gold; Ali Guermazi; Ida Kristin Haugen; Daichi Hayashi; Simon Herger; David Hunter; Mylène Jansen; Mohamed Jarraya; Margreet Kloppenburg; Feliks Kogan; Thomas Link; Jamie MacKay; Tazio Maleitzke; Simon Mastbergen; Annegret Mündermann; Sven Nebelung; Simo Saarakkala; Christoph Salzlechner; Tanja Stamm; Tom Turmezei; Tobias Winkler; and others!

Best wishes and more to come for 2026!

1: Wirth W, Maschek S, Wisser A, Eder J, Baumgartner CF, Chaudhari A, Berenbaum F, Eckstein F; OA-BIO Consortium. (Original Paper)Evaluation of an automated laminar cartilage T2 relaxation time analysis method in an early osteoarthritis model.  Skeletal Radiol. 2025 Mar;54(3):571-584. PMID: 39230576
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39230576

2: Roemer FW, Jansen MP, Maschek S, Mastbergen SC, Marijnissen AK, Wisser A, Heiss R, Weinans HH, Blanco FJ, Berenbaum F, Kloppenburg M, Haugen IK, Eckstein F, Hunter DJ, Guermazi A, Wirth W. (Original Paper) Fluctuation of Bone Marrow Lesions and Inflammatory MRI Markers over 2 Years and Concurrent Associations with Quantitative Cartilage Loss. Cartilage. 2025 Sep;16(3):308-321. PMID: 39460605
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39460605

3: Maleitzke T, Bolander J, Mobasheri A, Fleckenstein FN, Eckstein F, Brisson NM, Winkler T. (Comment) Comment on “Surgical restabilization reduces the progression of post-traumatic osteoarthritis initiated by ACL rupture in mice”; Lin et al. (2024); recommendations for non-invasive knee joint injury models. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2025 May;33(5):658-659. PMID: 39947509.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39947509

4: Wirth W, Herger S, Maschek S, Wisser A, Bieri O, Eckstein F, Mündermann A. (Original Paper) Clinical validation of fully automated cartilage transverse relaxation time (T2) and thickness analysis using quantitative DESS magnetic resonance imaging.  MAGMA. 2025 Apr;38(2):285-297. PMID: 39992574
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39992574

5: Jansen MP, Turmezei TD, Dattani K, Kessler DA, Mastbergen SC, Kloppenburg M, Blanco FJ, Haugen IK, Berenbaum F, Wirth W, Eckstein F, Roemer FW, MacKay JW. (Original Paper)Cartilage thickness distribution and its dependence on demographic, radiographic, and MRI structural pathology in knee osteoarthritis-data from the IMI-APPROACH cohort.  Skeletal Radiol. 2025 Oct;54(10):2025-2034. PMID: 40113602
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40113602

6: Eckstein F, Stamm T, Collins J. (Perspective) Which Endpoints Should be Applied in Interventional Trials?: From Single Uni-dimensional Assessment Tailored to a Drug’s Mechanism of Action to Multi-Component Measures and Multi-Domain Composites.  Osteoarthr Imaging. 2025 Mar;5(1): PMID: 40160440
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40160440

7: Eckstein F, Mobasheri A, Boesen MP. (Perspective)Multifaceted imaging strategies for clinical trials of knee osteoarthritis-a tightly interlinked value and precision chain. Skeletal Radiol. 2025 Sep;54(9):1789-1802. PMID: 40167617
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40167617

8: Wirth W, Eckstein F. (Original paper)A fully-automated technique for cartilage morphometry in knees with severe radiographic osteoarthritis – Method development and validation.  Osteoarthr Cartil Open. 2025 Jul 4;7(3):100645. PMID: 40697622
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40697622

9: Birmingham TB, Primeau CA, Moyer RF, Bryant DM, Ma J, Leitch KM, Wirth W, Degen R, Getgood AM, Litchfield RB, Willits KR, Eckstein F, Giffin JR. (Original paper)High Tibial Osteotomy for Medial Compartment Knee Osteoarthritis : A Randomized TrialWith Parallel Preference.Ann Intern Med. 2025 Sep;178(9):1238-1248. PMID: 40720836
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40720836

10: Kwoh CK, Boudreau RM, Eckstein F, Roemer FW, Hannon MJ, Guermazi A, Hunter DJ. (Original paper)A virtual knee replacement (vKR) multi-component endpoint for knee osteoarthritis based on patient-reported PROs: Data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2025 Nov;33(11):1372-1381. PMID: 40780453
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40780453/

11: Eckstein F, Chaudhari AS, Hunter DJ, Wirth W. (Original paper) 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. Osteoarthr Cartil Open. 2025 Aug 5;7(3): PMID: 40822965
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40822965

12: Eckstein F, Wirth W, Guermazi A, Roemer F, Nevitt M, Ladel C, Sharma L,Hunter DJ, Kwoh CK. (Original paper) Cartilage loss is greater in knees with virtual joint replacement status than in matched controls without. Osteoarthr Cartil Open. 2025 Aug 5;7(4):100658. PMID: 40893583
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40893583/

13: Collins JE, Mesenbrink P, Jin R, Dam EB, Deveza LA, Eckstein F, Guermazi A, Ladel C, Perry TA, Robinson D, Roemer FW, Swearingen CJ, Wirth W, Kraus VB, Hunter DJ. (Original paper) Magnetic Resonance Imaging Biomarkers of Knee Osteoarthritis Progression. ACR Open Rheumatol. 2025 Sep;7(9):e70085. PMID: 40977252
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40977252

14: Roemer FW, Jansen M, Maschek S, Mastbergen S, Wisser A, Weinans HH, Blanco FJ, Berenbaum F, Kloppenburg M, Haugen IK, Hunter DJ, Guermazi A, Wirth W. (Original paper)Do rates of femorotibial cartilage loss in Kellgren-Lawrence 2 and 3 knees differbetween those with mild-moderate vs. severe patellofemoral structural damage? Data from the FNIH and IMI-APPROACH cohorts. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2025 Oct 12:S1063-4584(25)01186-0. PMID: 41086901
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41086901/

15: Bax EA, Kerkhof JAJ, van Egmond N, Kuiper RJA, Rayegan H, Kloppenburg M, Blanco FJ, Haugen IK, Berenbaum F, Mastbergen SC, Eckstein F, Wirth W, Roemer FW, Kruyt MC, Weinans H, Custers RJH. (Original paper)The Impact of varus and valgus alignment on knee cartilage quality assessed by magnetic resonance imaging: insights from the IMI-APPROACH cohort. Knee. 2025 Dec; 57:477-487. PMID: 41138538
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41138538/

16: Salzlechner C, Wirth W, Mastbergen SC, Kloppenburg M, Blanco FJ, Haugen IK, Berenbaum F, Jansen MP. (Original paper)Does spontaneous cartilage thickening occur in osteoarthritic knees? Data from IMI-APPROACH and the OAI. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2025 Dec 6:S1063-4584(25)01243-9. PMID: 41360179
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41360179/

17: Jansen MP, Mastbergen S, Wirth W, Roemer FW, Bacardit J, Ben-Jensen AC, Kloppenburg M, Blanco FJ, Haugen IK, Berenbaum F,  Eijkelkamp N, Jarraya M (Original paper)How are patient-reported pain outcomes associated with biomarker and structural pathology subtypes in knee osteoarthritis – An explorative evaluation in the IMI-APPROACH cohort. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage Open: Online 11 December 2025, 100726

18: Wirth W, Eder J (Review)Clinical validation of fully automated (peri-) articular tissue analysis for assessing osteoarthritis progression: a narrative review Osteoarthritis and Cartilage Open, 2025: Online 12 December 2025, 100719

19: Eckstein F, Bangerter N, Wirth W (Review)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 History. Paracelsus Proceedings: accepted for publication

20: Guermazi A, Eckstein F, Gold G, Hayashi D, Jarraya M, Kogan F, Li X, Link TM, Nebelung S, Oei EHG, Omoumi P, Saarakkala S, Trattnig S, Wirth W, Roemer FW (Review) Advances in cartilage imaging techniques. Nature Rheumatology Reviews: accepted for publication

21: Eckstein F, Putz R (Perspective – Special Issue)Skeletal Interfaces in Health and Disease – Where two worlds interact:  The Salzburg Leopoldina Symposium 2025 – Bridging Disciplines and Perspective. Ann Anat: accepted for publication