Measuring Changes of 3D Structures in High-Resolution CT Images of Trabecular Bone

The appearances of pathological changes of bone can be various. Determination of apparent bone mineral density is commonly used for diagnosing bone pathological conditions. However, in the last years the structural changes of trabecular bone have received more attention because bone densitometry alone cannot explain all variation in bone strength. The rapid progress in high resolution 3D micro Computed Tomography (μCT) imaging facilitates the development of new 3D measures of complexity for assessing the spatial architecture of trabecular bone. We have developed a novel approach which is based on 3D complexity measures in order to quantify spatial geometrical properties of bone architecture. These measures evaluate different aspects of organization and complexity of trabecular bone, such as complexity of its surface, node complexity, or local surface curvature. In order to quantify the differences in the trabecular bone architecture at different stages of osteoporotic bone loss, the developed complexity measures were applied to 3D data sets acquired by μCT from human proximal tibiae and lumbar vertebrae. The results obtained by the complexity measures were compared with results provided by static histomorphometry. We have found clear relationships between the proposed measures and different aspects of bone architecture assessed by the histomorphometry.