Texture analysis of computed tomographic images in osteoporotic patients with sinus lift bone graft reconstruction

Bone implants are now widely used to replace missing teeth. Bone grafting (sinus lift) is a very useful way to increase the bone volume of the maxilla in patients with bone atrophy. There is a 6- to 9-month delay for the receiver grafted site to heal before the implants can be placed. Computed tomography is a useful method to measure the amount of remaining bone before implantation and to evaluate the quality of the receiver bone at the end of the healing period. Texture analysis is a non-invasive method useful to characterize bone microarchitecture on X-ray images.

Ten patients in which a sinus lift surgery was necessary before implantation were analyzed in the present study. All had a bone reconstruction with a combination of a biomaterial (beta tricalcium phosphate) and autograft bone harvested at the chin. Computed tomographic images were obtained before grafting (t0), at mid-interval (t1, 4.2 ± 0.7 months) and before implant placement (t2, 9.2 ± 0.6 months). Texture analysis was done with the run-length method.

A significant increase of texture parameters at t1 reflected a gain of homogeneity due to the graft and the beginning of bone remodeling. At t2, some parameters remained high and corresponded to the persistence of bone trabeculae while the resorption of biomaterials was identified by other parameters which tended to return to pregraft values.

Texture analysis identified changes during the healing of the receiver site.

The method is known to correlate with microarchitectural changes in bone and could be a useful approach to characterized osseointegrated grafts.