title: A NEW ALGORITHM FOR TRABECULAR BONE THICKNESS COMPUTATION AT LOW RESOLUTION ACHIEVED UNDER IN VIVO CONDITION.
abstract: Adult bone diseases, especially osteoporosis, lead to increased risk of fracture associated with substantial morbidity, mortality, and financial costs. Clinically, osteoporosis is defined by low bone mineral density (BMD); however, increasing evidence suggests that the micro-architectural quality of trabecular bone (TB) is an important determinant of bone strength and fracture risk. Accurate measurement of trabecular thickness and marrow spacing is of significant interest for early diagnosis of osteoporosis or treatment effects. Here, we present a new robust algorithm for computing TB thickness and marrow spacing at a low resolution achievablein vivo. The method uses a star-line tracing technique that effectively deals with partial voluming effects ofin vivoimaging where voxel size is comparable to TB thickness. Experimental results on cadaveric ankle specimens have demonstrated the algorithm's robustness (ICC>0.98) under repeat scans of multi-row detector computed tomography (MD-CT) imaging. It has been observed in experimental results that TB thickness and marrow spacing measures as computed by the new algorithm have strong association (R2∈{0.85, 0.87}) with TB's experimental mechanical strength measures.
authors.affiliation: Department of ECE, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 52242.
authors.forename: Yinxiao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of ECE, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 52242.
authors.forename: Dakai
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Department of ECE, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 52242; Department of Radiology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 52242.
authors.forename: Punam K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Saha
keywords: Trabecular bone thickness; bone biomechanics; marrow spacing; multi-row detector CT; star line tracing