Disorders of bone and fracture of the femoral neck. Evaluation of computer image analysis in diagnosis

The quantity of bone and osteoid has been measured in undecalcified sections of iliac-crest biopsy specimens taken from patients with fracture of the femoral neck. A control group of bone samples was obtained from post-mortem material. The 'Quantimet 720' image-analysing computer system was used to measure the area of bone and osteoid. An eye-piece graticule was used to measure the proportion of bone-surfaces covered with osteoid, and there was good correlation between the results obtained by these two methods. Little difference was found between the proportion of bone in the fracture and control groups, but the fracture group contained many more individuals with an increased proportion of trabecular osteoid measured with the quantimet and of osteoid-covered surfaces measured with an eyepiece graticule.