Digital image analysis for the diagnosis of periapical bone lesions: a preliminary study

Digital image analysis techniques enable the problem of examiner variability to be circumvented, and can be used to develop quantitative descriptions of bone lesions. This study investigated a method for describing periapical bone lesions. An edge-detection technique was developed for application to routine periapical radiographs. Most periapical bone lesions appear radiographically as dark areas compared with the surrounding tissues. The digital imaging process resulted in an outline resembling the contour of the image of the lesion present. This contour could be successfully projected on to the original image with only limited operator assistance. Processing of the image resulted in increased definition of the structures present, with considerable noise reduction. The result was a simplified diagnostic examination process that promised a high degree of objectivity in periapical bone lesion detection. It is concluded that the results encourage further development of image processing techniques suitable for the definitive detection and diagnosis of periapical bone lesions.