The assessment of trabecular bone microarchitecture by numerical
analysis of high resolution magnetic resonance (HRMR) images provides
global and local structural characteristics, which improve the
understanding of the progression of osteoporosis and its diagnosis. In
the present work we apply the finite elements method (FEM), which models
the biomechanical behaviour of the bone, the scaling index method (SIM),
which describes the topology of the structure on a local level, and
Minkowski Functionals (MF), which are global topological
characteristics, for analysing 3D HRMR images of 48 distal radius
specimens in vitro. Diagnostic performance of texture measures derived
from the numerical methods is compared with regard to the prevalence of
vertebral fractures. Both topological methods show significantly better
results than those obtained using bone mineral density (BMD) measurement
and the failure load estimated by FEM. The receiver operating
characteristic analysis for differentiating subjects with and without
fractures reveals area under the curve of 0.63 for BMD, 0.66 for maximum
compressive strength as determined in a biomechanical test, 0.72 for
critical load estimated by FEM, 0.79 for MF4 and 0.86 for SIM, i.e.
local topological characteristics derived by SIM suit best for
diagnosing osteoporosis. The combination of FEM and SIM on tissue level
shows that in both weak and strong bones the plate-like substructure of
the trabecular network are the main load bearing part of the inner bone
and that the relative amount of plates to rods is the most important
characteristic for the prediction of bone strength.
«
The assessment of trabecular bone microarchitecture by numerical
analysis of high resolution magnetic resonance (HRMR) images provides
global and local structural characteristics, which improve the
understanding of the progression of osteoporosis and its diagnosis. In
the present work we apply the finite elements method (FEM), which models
the biomechanical behaviour of the bone, the scaling index method (SIM),
which describes the topology of the structure on a local level, and
Minkowski Functio...
»