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Application of Bone Morphometry and Densitometry by X-Ray Micro-CT to Bone Disease Models and Phenotypes

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Micro-computed Tomography (micro-CT) in Medicine and Engineering

Abstract

Micro-CT is becoming a gold standard for quantitative imaging in preclinical disease models in bone and dental research. Osteoporosis research routinely uses micro-CT for 3D analysis of the architecture and mechanical competence of trabecular and cortical bone. Most published methodological research on micro-CT in bone has focussed on osteoporosis. However there is equal potential for micro-CT to quantitatively assess many other bone and dental disease models (and genetic phenotypes). This potentially confronts a micro-CT user with a daunting task of developing or learning many detailed methodologies corresponding to each of these research areas. However here a unified methodological approach or “pipeline” is presented that can be applied to all preclinical bone research models. This consists of a series of steps: (a) the scan and reconstruction, (b) orienting the 3D image in a standardised way, (c) delineating the volume of interest (VOI) and (d) segmentation and 3D analysis with application-specific interpretation of measured parameters. How this pipeline works in practice is described for five example applications: osteoporosis, arthritis bone effects, arthritis cartilage effects, bone tumour and fracture callus healing. All these steps can be performed in a single scanner and software environment, not requiring numerous software packages and diverse methodologies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bruker-micro CT, Kontich, Belgium

    Phil Salmon

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  1. Phil Salmon
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Correspondence to Phil Salmon .

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  1. Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey

    Kaan Orhan

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Salmon, P. (2020). Application of Bone Morphometry and Densitometry by X-Ray Micro-CT to Bone Disease Models and Phenotypes. In: Orhan, K. (eds) Micro-computed Tomography (micro-CT) in Medicine and Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16641-0_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16641-0_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-16640-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-16641-0

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