Non-invasive assessment of bone quality

A morphological filter and pipeline analysis was applied to computed radiographs (CR) to abstract the geometrical characteristics of the trabecular pattern and to analyze bone mechanical properties. By applying a morphological filter to the CR images, trabecular patterns were divided into 8 subset groups (n=O through 7) by the trabecular thickness. Sumset images were also derived from the thicker trabeculae group (n=2-5, 3-6, and 4-7) to examine the criteria relating the percentage of thicker trabeculae to the strength of the bone. A method to analyze the bone mechanical properties was developed, based on the hypothesis that data of connective line segments were loaded mechanically. By this method, trabeculae were analyzed in the fifth lumbar vertebrae from etidronic acid-treated and non-treated ovariectomized osteoporosis rat models, and in human third lumbar vertebrae. Consequently, it was shown that total loss of bone mass accompanied a reduction of consecutive trabecular number in the rat osteoporosis model, especially in parts of the bone having thick trabeculae. The reduction in number of connective trabeculae, from one cortical side to the other, occurred at a similar rate, along both the craniocaudal and anteroposterior axes in the vertebral bodies of the experimental osteoporosis rats. In the dynamic study with human third vertebral blocks, no significant correlation was observed between the bone mineral density of the bone specimens and their ultimate strength (R2=0.093). In contrast, the abstracted percentage of thicker trabeculae, derived from the sumset (n=2-5) images, showed a strong correlation with bony mechanical properties (Young's modulus: R2=0.915, maximum point load: R2=0.815). The result calculated by this methodology can serve as an excellent index to indicate bone strength under non-destructive, living conditions.