The acoustic emission analysis exhibits significant diagnostic accuracy for in vivo diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis, evident from a study published in the Journal of Medical Engineering and Physics.

Previous studies provided evidence regarding Acoustic Emission Analysis (AEA) ability to detect the early changes in the cartilage structure. Although, no in vivo validation studies was performed until now. This prospective pilot study was conducted to measure AEA accuracy, utilising magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a reference standard and possible factors affect negative positive or false results.

A total of 28 patients receiving MRI due to knee discomfort were selected for the acoustic emission analysis. The sensitivity and specificity for whole knee and different parts of the knee noticed were (0.92 and 0.86 to 1) and (0.7 and 0.59 to 0.78), respectively. The variation in confidence intervals in specificity and sensitivity found to be were (0.1 and 0.24) and (0 and 0.33), respectively. The AEA shows good to very good diagnostic accuracy, but the data interpretation should be examined due to the involvement of a relatively small number of patients. Further analyses with the great sample size are needed to validate these outcomes.