Evaluation of voxel values in mandibular cancellous bone: relationship between cone-beam computed tomography and multislice helical computed tomography.
OBJECTIVE
Measurements of bone density in designed sites are important in presurgical imaging for dental implant treatment. However, the pixel or voxel values obtained from cone-beam computed tomography (CT) images are not absolute values. Hence, the relationship between voxel values obtained from cone-beam CT with a limited-volume exposure field and a flat panel detector and bone mineral densities (BMDs) obtained from multislice CT was evaluated in the mandible.


METHODS
A total of 16 (four males and 12 females) patients who had undergone imaging for mandibular dental implant treatment using cone-beam CT with Alphard VEGA and multislice CT were enrolled in this investigation. Cross-sectional images of cone-beam and multislice CT were reconstructed, and values of regions of interest (ROIs) in images were calculated.


RESULTS
A high-level correlation between voxel values of cone-beam CT and BMDs of multislice CT was observed (r=0.965).


CONCLUSIONS
It was suggested that voxel values of mandibular cancellous bone in cone-beam CT could be used to estimate bone density.
Naitoh
Munetaka
M
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, School of Dentistry, Aichi-Gakuin University, 2-11 Suemori-Dori, Chikusa-Ku, Nagoya 464-8651, Japan. mune@dpc.aichi-gakuin.ac.jp
Hirukawa
Akiko
A
Katsumata
Akitoshi
A
Ariji
Eiichiro
E
D019412:Anatomy, Cross-Sectional / Q000295:instrumentation; D015519:Bone Density; D054893:Cone-Beam Computed Tomography; D003720:Densitometry / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D003758:Dental Implantation, Endosseous / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008334:Mandible / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D019252:Radiography, Dental, Digital / Q000295:instrumentation; D012016:Reference Values; D036542:Tomography, Spiral Computed