title: A New Algorithm for Cortical Bone Segmentation with Its Validation and Applications to In Vivo Imaging.
abstract: Cortical bone supports and protects our skeletal functions and it plays an important in determining bone strength and fracture risks. Cortical bone segmentation is needed for quantitative analyses and the task is nontrivial forin vivomulti-row detector CT (MD-CT) imaging due to limited resolution and partial volume effects. An automated cortical bone segmentation algorithm forin vivoMD-CT imaging of distal tibia is presented. It utilizes larger contextual and topologic information of the bone using a modified fuzzy distance transform and connectivity analyses. An accuracy of 95.1% in terms of volume of agreement with true segmentations and a repeat MD-CT scan intra-class correlation of 98.2% were observed in a cadaveric study. Anin vivostudy involving 45 age-similar and height-matched pairs of male and female volunteers has shown that, on an average, male subjects have 16.3% thicker cortex and 4.7% increased porosity as compared to females.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242.
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242.
authors.forename: Dakai
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242.
authors.forename: Trudy L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Burns
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242.
authors.forename: James C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Torner
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242; College of Dentistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242.
authors.forename: Steven M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Levy
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 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: CT imaging; Osteoporosis; connectivity; cortical bone; fuzzy distance transform; segmentation