In order to support the diagnosis of osteoporosis by the quantitative determination of bone strength, we examined a pre-processing method for extracting trabeculae and a quantitative method of analyzing the characteristics of trabeculae by imaging. The results indicated that both density-exposure conversion and background trend correction(smoothing filter method, rolling ball method)were effective pre-processing methods for extracting trabeculae. Image analysis of bone trabecular characteristics showed that there was a significant weak negative correlation(r = - 0.26, p = 0.011)between the number of vertical trabeculae on lateral lumbar vertebral images and lumbar bone mineral density. In addition, there were significant
positive correlations(r = 0.510~0.678, p < 0.0029~0.0426)between the spatial frequency of calcaneal trabecular images estimated by our newly developed method of analyzing spatial frequency and bone mass indices obtained by the QUS/SXA apparatus for quantifying bone mass. There were significant high correlations(r = 0.608~0.820, p < 0.0001~0.0109)between the fractal dimension of calcaneal trabecular
images and bone mass indices. In conclusion, it was shown that the values obtained from analysis were correlated with bone elasticity and bone density. |
