Technical considerations for microstructural analysis of human trabecular bone from specimens excised from various...

Area of Science:

• Orthopedics and Biomedical Engineering
• Materials Science and Engineering
• Radiology and Medical Imaging

Background:

• Quantitative analysis of human trabecular bone microstructure is crucial for understanding skeletal diseases.
• Microcomputed tomography (microCT) is a key technology for high-resolution bone imaging.
• Standardization of microCT protocols is essential for reliable and reproducible results.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of repositioning, region of interest (ROI) displacements, and acquisition parameters on quantitative microCT analysis of human trabecular bone.
• To determine the reproducibility of microCT measurements across different skeletal sites.
• To identify optimal scan parameters for accurate human bone microstructure assessment.

Main Methods:

• Investigated 28 human trabecular bone specimens from four skeletal sites using microCT.
• Assessed reproducibility by examining ROIs twice, 8 weeks apart, at 26-micrometer isotropic resolution.
• Analyzed effects of ROI displacements (1-4 mm) and variations in scan mode and integration time.

Main Results:

• MicroCT measurements demonstrated high reproducibility, with bone volume fraction (BV/TV) coefficient variation ranging from 0.64% to 1.29%.
• Displacements of the volume of interest (VOI) up to 4 mm resulted in non-significant systematic differences (<10%).
• An integration time of 100 ms was identified as preferable for human bone samples with the tested microCT scanner.

Conclusions:

• MicroCT analysis of human trabecular bone is robust to minor repositioning and ROI displacements.
• Standardized acquisition parameters, particularly integration time, are important for accurate microstructural analysis.
• The findings support the reliability of microCT for quantitative assessment of human bone microstructure across various skeletal sites.