Fig. 4. Comparison of sMOAKS with traditional MOAKS for lesion depth.

Proton Density fat saturated images from three patients with grade 2 size cartilage loss (curved arrows). The 2 depth level assessment (any cartilage loss & full thickness defect) of MOAKS assigns the same grades regions of shallow (A) and deep (B) partial-thickness cartilage loss and only differentiates the full-thickness defect, as seen in the central patellar subregion in (C); MOAKS would capture (A) as 2.0, (B) as 2.0, and (C) as 2.2. With 3 depth level assessment, sMOAKS differentiates all 3 types of defects by recording that the lesion in (B) has deep cartilage loss (DCL); sMOAKS would capture (A) as 2.0.0, (B) as 2.2.0, and (C) as 2.2.2.
cP = central patella, lP = lateral patella, mP = medial patella