title: Evaluation of in-vivo measurement errors associated with micro-computed tomography scans by means of the bone surface distance approach.
abstract: In vivo micro-computed tomography (µCT) scanning is an important tool for longitudinal monitoring of the bone adaptation process in animal models. However, the errors associated with the usage of in vivo µCT measurements for the evaluation of bone adaptations remain unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the measurement errors using the bone surface distance approach. The right tibiae of eight 14-week-old C57BL/6 J female mice were consecutively scanned four times in an in vivo µCT scanner using a nominal isotropic image voxel size (10.4 µm) and the tibiae were repositioned between each scan. The repeated scan image datasets were aligned to the corresponding baseline (first) scan image dataset using rigid registration and a region of interest was selected in the proximal tibia metaphysis for analysis. The bone surface distances between the repeated and the baseline scan datasets were evaluated. It was found that the average (±standard deviation) median and 95th percentile bone surface distances were 3.10 ± 0.76 µm and 9.58 ± 1.70 µm, respectively. This study indicated that there were inevitable errors associated with the in vivo µCT measurements of bone microarchitecture and these errors should be taken into account for a better interpretation of bone adaptations measured with in vivo µCT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering and INSIGNEO Institute for in silico Medicine, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK. Electronic address: yongtao.lu@sheffield.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Yongtao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Bone Biology Unit, Department of Human Metabolism and INSIGNEO Institute for in silico Medicine, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK; MRC-Arthritis Research UK Centre for Integrated Research into Musculoskeletal Ageing (CIMA), UK.
authors.forename: Maya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boudiffa
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering and INSIGNEO Institute for in silico Medicine, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dall'Ara
authors.affiliation: Bone Biology Unit, Department of Human Metabolism and INSIGNEO Institute for in silico Medicine, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK; MRC-Arthritis Research UK Centre for Integrated Research into Musculoskeletal Ageing (CIMA), UK.
authors.forename: Ilaria
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bellantuono
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering and INSIGNEO Institute for in silico Medicine, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Viceconti
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D066264:Datasets as Topic; D005260:Female; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013977:Tibia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D055114:X-Ray Microtomography / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Bone adaptation; Bone surface distance; In vivo µCT; Mouse tibia; Repeated scans