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Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a prevalent condition characterized by gradual progression, resulting in observable bone alterations in X-ray images. X-rays are the preferred diagnostic tool for their ease of use and cost-effectiveness. Physicians use the Kellgren and Lawrence (KL) grading system to understand the severity of an individual condition of KOA. This system categorizes the disease from normal to a severe stage. Early detection of the condition with this approach enables knee deterioration to be slowed down with therapy. In this study, we aggregated four datasets to generate an extensive dataset comprising 110,232 raw images by applying an augmentation technique called deep convolutional generative adversarial network (DCGAN). We employed advanced image pre-processing methods (adaptive histogram equalization (AHE), fast non-local means), including image resizing, to generate a substantial dataset and enhance image quality. Our proposed approach involved developing a modified compact convolutional transformer (CCT) model known as KOA-CCTNet as the foundational model. We further investigated optimal configurations by adjusting various parameters and hyperparameters in the final model to handle large datasets and address training time concerns efficiently. We investigated optimizing its configurations by adjusting numerous parameters and hyperparameters to efficiently manage extensive data and address concerns related to training time. Simulation results indicated that our proposed model outperforms other transfer learning models (Swin Transformer, Vision Transformer, Involutional Neural Network) in terms of accuracy. The test accuracy for the ResNet50, MobileNetv2, DenseNet201, InceptionV3, and VGG16 was 80.77%, 79.98%, 80.23%, 76.89%, and 79.58%, respectively. All of them were surpassed by our proposed KOA-CCTNet model, which had a test accuracy of 94.58% while classifying KOA X-ray images. Furthermore, we reduced the number of images to assess the model’s performance and compared it to existing models. However, by employing a large datahub, our proposed approach provides a unique and effective way to diagnose KOA grades with satisfying results.

Osteoarthritis is a deteriorating joint disease affecting millions worldwide. Osteoarthritis is a chronic condition that develops over time due to joint wear and tears. The degeneration of joint cartilage is the underlying cause of osteoarthritis, resulting in bone-to-bone contact and contributing to stiffness, discomfort, and restricted movement. People with osteoarthritis struggle to perform simple tasks such as walking, standing, or climbing stairs. Moreover, osteoarthritis can also cause psychological distress, including depression and anxiety, due to the chronic pain and disability associated with the condition. Improving the quality of life requires the development of efficient methods for early detection. Our study aims to create a model that can effectively diagnose osteoarthritis in knee X-ray images at an early stage. The advanced deep learning-based Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and several machine learning-based techniques are applied in comparison. A novel transfer learning-based feature engineering technique CRK (CNN Random forest K-neighbors) is proposed to detect osteoarthritis with high performance. Using a 2D-CNN, the proposed CRK smartly extracts the spatial features from the X-ray images. The spatial features are input to the random forest and k-neighbors techniques, creating a probabilistic feature set. The probabilistic feature set is utilized to build the applied machine learning-based techniques. Extensive study experiments demonstrate that the proposed model outperformed with a 99% accuracy score for predicting osteoarthritis. The performance of each applied model is validated using hyperparameter optimization and k-fold-based cross-validation. The proposed study has the potential to revolutionize the prediction of osteoarthritis from X-ray images with high-performance scores.