Blinding images to sequence in osteoarthritis: evidence from other diseases

摘要

Osteoarthritis is a chronic disease that evolves slowly, and multiple longitudinal studies now ongoing are acquiring serial images of joints to track the structural progress of disease. When reading or analysing serial images using any method in which human judgment plays a part (as opposed to fully automated or computerized methods) it is generally accepted that viewing a subject's images from different timepoints grouped together reduces measurement error by enabling the readers to re-evaluate and adjust measurements made on these images, taking into account variation in film quality, positioning and other factors#