title: Trabecular bone structural parameters evaluated using dental cone-beam computed tomography: cellular synthetic bones.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study compared the adequacy of dental cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and micro computed tomography (micro-CT) in evaluating the structural parameters of trabecular bones.
  
  
  METHODS
  The cellular synthetic bones in 4 density groups (Groups 1-4: 0.12, 0.16, 0.20, and 0.32 g/cm3) were used in this study. Each group comprised 8 experimental specimens that were approximately 1 cm3. Dental CBCT and micro-CT scans were conducted on each specimen to obtain independent measurements of the following 4 trabecular bone structural parameters: bone volume fraction (BV/TV), specific bone surface (BS/BV), trabecular thickness (Tb.Th.), and trabecular separation (Tb.Sp.). Wilcoxon signed ranks tests were used to compare the measurement variations between the dental CBCT and micro-CT scans. A Spearman analysis was conducted to calculate the correlation coefficients (r) of the dental CBCT and micro-CT measurements.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Of the 4 groups, the BV/TV and Tb.Th. measured using dental CBCT were larger compared with those measured using micro-CT. By contrast, the BS/BV measured using dental CBCT was significantly less compared with those measured using micro-CT. Furthermore, in the low-density groups (Groups 1 and 2), the Tb.Sp. measured using dental CBCT was smaller compared with those measured using micro-CT. However, the Tb.Sp. measured using dental CBCT was slightly larger in the high-density groups (Groups 3 and 4) than it was in the low density groups. The correlation coefficients between the BV/TV, BS/BV, Tb.Th., and Tb.Sp. values measured using dental CBCT and micro-CT were 0.9296 (p < .001), 0.8061 (p < .001), 0.9390 (p < .001), and 0.9583 (p < .001), respectively. Although the dental CBCT and micro-CT approaches exhibited high correlations, the absolute values of BV/TV, BS/BV, Tb.Th., Tb.Sp. differed significantly between these measurements. Additional studies must be conducted to evaluate using dental CBCT in clinical practice.
authors.forename: Jung-Ting
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: Jay
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Heng-Li
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Michael Y c
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Lih-Jyh
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Fuh
authors.affiliation: School of Dentistry, College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan. jthsu@mail.cmu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Jui-Ting
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Hsu
mesh_terms: D040761:Biomimetic Materials; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D054893:Cone-Beam Computed Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D003813:Dentistry; D006801:Humans; D055114:X-Ray Microtomography