Raman spectroscopy and U-Net deep neural network in antiresorptive drug-related osteonecrosis of the jaw

Application of an optical method for the identification of antiresorptive drug-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (ARONJ).

We introduce shifted-excitation Raman difference spectroscopy followed by U-Net deep neural network refinement to determine bone tissue viability. The obtained results are validated through established histological methods.

Discrimination of osteonecrosis from physiological tissues was evaluated at 119 distinct measurement loci in 40 surgical specimens from 28 patients. Mean Raman spectra were refined from 11,900 raw spectra, and characteristic peaks were assigned to their respective molecular origin. Then, following principal component and linear discriminant analyses, osteonecrotic lesions were distinguished from physiological tissue entities, such as viable bone, with a sensitivity, specificity, and overall accuracy of 100%. Moreover, bone mineral content, quality, maturity, and crystallinity were quantified, revealing an increased mineral-to-matrix ratio and decreased carbonate-to-phosphate ratio in ARONJ lesions compared to physiological bone.

The results demonstrate feasibility with high classification accuracy in this collective. The differentiation was determined by the spectral features of the organic and mineral composition of bone. This merely optical, noninvasive technique is a promising candidate to ameliorate both the diagnosis and treatment of ARONJ in the future.