E-Mail (Boston)--Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a global health problem. Almost half the adults over the age of 75 have some form of knee OA--one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. Because there is no cure for knee OA, current treatment relies on accurately identifying and staging the disease. Using an Artificial Intelligence-based approach known as deep learning, researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have now identified a new measure to determine the severity of knee osteoarthritis--named "subchondral bone length" (SBL). There are only a handful of proven imaging markers of knee OA. Currently, medical imaging tools such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) or x-rays are used to examine the knee joint. "Our study identified a new imaging measure that has the potential to become a biomarker of knee OA," explained corresponding author explained corresponding author Vijaya B. Kolachalama, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at BUSM.