Elbow osteoarthritis (OA) is common in cats and radiography is typically used for diagnosis. However computed tomography (CT), with its multiplanar three-dimensional characteristics, could have significant advantages for assessment of OA compared to radiography, particularly early in the disease process. The study objectives were to compare radiography and CT to histologic OA changes, investigate the stage of OA that radiography and CT detect, and search for specific changes in CT images strongly predictive for feline elbow OA.

Right elbows from 29 cats were evaluated by radiography and CT, and articular cartilage lesions graded histologically and macroscopically. Three further joints were sampled to specifically evaluate the morphology of the anconeal process. Macroscopic, radiographic and CT OA diagnosis were compared to the reference standard histologic OA that was divided into mild, moderate and severe. Osteophytic spurs on the lateral margin of the anconeal process could be reliably measured in CT images (intra-class correlation 0.79) and when ≥0.5 mm had high sensitivity for moderate/severe histologic OA, moderate sensitivity for mild histologic OA and high specificity for all stages of OA. In moderate/severe histologic OA both radiography and CT subjective OA diagnosis had moderate to very high sensitivity. However, in mild histologic OA CT grading had low sensitivity and radiography did not detect OA. In conclusion, CT of the feline elbow including measurement of osteophytes on the anconeal process lateral margin is superior to radiography for OA detection and should be considered for OA diagnosis, particularly when mild OA changes are of interest.

肘部骨关节炎 (OA) 在猫中很常见，放射学检查通常用于诊断。然而，计算机断层扫描 (CT) 具有多平面三维特征，与放射线照相相比，在评估 OA 方面可能具有显着优势，尤其是在疾病过程的早期。研究目的是将放射照相和 CT 与组织学 OA 变化进行比较，研究放射照相和 CT 检测到的 OA 阶段，并在 CT 图像中寻找对猫肘部 OA 具有强烈预测作用的特定变化。

29 只猫的右肘部通过 X 光片和 CT 进行评估，关节软骨病变在组织学和宏观上分级。对另外三个关节进行采样，以专门评估肘关节过程的形态。将肉眼、影像学和 CT OA 诊断与分为轻度、中度和重度的参考标准组织学 OA 进行比较。在 CT 图像中可以可靠地测量肘突外侧缘上的骨赘（类内相关性 0.79），当≥0.5 mm 时，对中/重度组织学 OA 具有高敏感性，对轻度组织学 OA 具有中等敏感性，对所有类型具有高特异性OA的各个阶段。在中度/重度组织学 OA 中，放射学和 CT 主观 OA 诊断均具有中等至非常高的敏感性。然而，在轻度组织学 OA 中，CT 分级的敏感性较低，放射学检查未检测到 OA。总之，猫肘部 CT 包括测量肘突外侧缘上的骨赘在 OA 检测方面优于 X 线照相术，应考虑用于 OA 诊断，尤其是在对轻度 OA 变化感兴趣时。