The use of Geometric Morphometrics as a New Method to Analyse Glenoid Bone Loss after Shoulder Dislocation

References: World Journal of Medical Education and Research. 2(1). 2012

Glenoid bone loss occurs at the anteroinferior and posteroinferior aspects of the glenoid rim in anterior and posterior instability respectively. This morphological change in the shape of the glenoid fossa predisposes to increasing instability. The aim of this study was to use geometric morphometrics to analyse changes to glenoid morphology in traumatic shoulder instability.
3D models of the surface of the glenoid fossa were created using CT scans from 8 patients with 5 dislocations and 3 controls. Ten landmarks, corresponding to the same anatomical sites between samples were digitized onto the surface of the glenoid fossa. Shape information was extracted from the
landmark co‐ordinates and analysed for variation in the geometric properties of the glenoid fossa using geometric morphometrics. Results showed that the areas of most pronounced variation between the dislocation and control groups were as expected, at the anteroinferior, and posteroinferior glenoid regions. This indicated that geometric morphometrics allows variation in the geometric properties of the glenoid fossa after dislocation to be accurately analysed at a good level of detail in three dimensions. Compared to conventional techniques using single glenoid measurements from 2 dimensional images, morphometrics represents an exciting new avenue for analysing the morphological changes to the glenohumeral joint involved in shoulder pathology.