title: A comparison of micro-CT and dental CT in assessing cortical bone morphology and trabecular bone microarchitecture.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the trabecular bone microarchitecture and cortical bone morphology by using micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) and dental cone-beam computed tomography (dental CT).
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixteen femurs and eight fifth lumbar vertebrae were collected from eight male Sprague Dawley rats. Four trabecular bone microarchitecture parameters related to the fifth lumbar vertebral body (percent bone volume [BV/TV], trabecular thickness [TbTh], trabecular separation [TbSp], and trabecular number [TbN]) were calculated using micro-CT. In addition, the volumetric cancellous bone grayscale value (vCanGrayscale) of the fifth lumbar vertebral body was measured using dental CT. Furthermore, four cortical bone morphology parameters of the femoral diaphysis (total cross-sectional area [TtAr], cortical area [CtAr], cortical bone area fraction [CtAr/TtAr], and cortical thickness [CtTh]) were calculated using both micro-CT and dental CT. Pearson analysis was conducted to calculate the correlation coefficients (r) of the micro-CT and dental CT measurements. Paired-sample t tests were used to compare the differences between the measurements of the four cortical bone morphology parameters obtained using micro-CT and dental CT.
  
  
  RESULTS
  High correlations between the vCanGrayscale measured using dental CT and the trabecular bone microarchitecture parameters (BV/TV [r = 0.84] and TbTh [r = 0.84]) measured using micro-CT were observed. The absolute value of the four cortical bone morphology parameters may be different between the dental CT and micro-CT approaches. However, high correlations (r ranged from 0.71 to 0.90) among these four cortical bone morphology parameters measured using the two approaches were obtained.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We observed high correlations between the vCanGrayscale measured using dental CT and the trabecular bone microarchitecture parameters (BV/TV and TbTh) measured using micro-CT, in addition to high correlations between the cortical bone morphology measured using micro-CT and dental CT. Further experiments are necessary to validate the use of dental CT on human bone.
authors.affiliation: School of Dentistry, College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jui-Ting
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.affiliation: Stem Cell Medical Research Center, Department of Medical Research, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ying-Ju
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Dentistry, College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jung-Ting
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.affiliation: School of Dentistry, College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Heng-Li
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Shun-Ping
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Stem Cell Medical Research Center, Department of Medical Research, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Fu-Chou
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Science, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jay
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hungkuang University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ming-Tzu
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Tsai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015519:Bone Density; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D054893:Cone-Beam Computed Tomography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D005269:Femur / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D055114:X-Ray Microtomography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods