Bone Data Lake: A storage platform for bone texture analysis

Trabecular bone (TB) texture regions selected on hand and knee X-ray images can be used to detect and predict osteoarthritis (OA). However, the analysis has been impeded by increasing data volume and diversification of data formats. To address this problem, a novel storage platform, called Bone Data Lake (BDL) is proposed for the collection and retention of large numbers of images, TB texture regions and parameters, regardless of their structure, size and source. BDL consists of three components, i.e.: a raw data storage, a processed data storage, and a data reference system. The performance of the BDL was evaluated using 20,000 knee and hand X-ray images of various formats (DICOM, PNG, JPEG, BMP, and compressed TIFF) and sizes (from 0.3 to 66.7 MB). The images were uploaded into BDL and automatically converted into a standardized 8-bit grayscale uncompressed TIFF format. TB regions of interest were then selected on the standardized images, and a data catalog containing metadata information about the regions was constructed. Next, TB texture parameters were calculated for the regions using Variance Orientation Transform (VOT) and Augmented VOT (AVOT) methods and stored in XLSX files. The files were uploaded into BDL, and then transformed into CSV files and cataloged. Results showed that the BDL efficiently transforms images and catalogs bone regions and texture parameters. BDL can serve as the foundation of a reliable, secure and collaborative system for OA detection and prediction based on radiographs and TB texture.