AUTHOR=Wu Yuchin , Adeeb Samer , Doschak Michael R. TITLE=Using Micro-CT Derived Bone Microarchitecture to Analyze Bone Stiffness - A Case Study on Osteoporosis Rat Bone JOURNAL=Frontiers in Endocrinology VOLUME=6 YEAR=2015 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/endocrinology/articles/10.3389/fendo.2015.00080 DOI=10.3389/fendo.2015.00080 ISSN=1664-2392 ABSTRACT=
Micro-computed tomography (Micro-CT) images can be used to quantitatively represent bone geometry through a range of computed attenuation-based parameters. Nonetheless, those parameters remain indirect indices of bone microarchitectural strength and require further computational tools to interpret bone structural stiffness and potential for mechanical failure. Finite element analysis (FEA) can be applied to measure trabecular bone stiffness and potentially predict the location of structural failure in preclinical animal models of osteoporosis, although that procedure from image segmentation of Micro-CT derived bone geometry to FEA is often challenging and computationally expensive, resulting in failure of the model to build. Notably, the selection of resolution and threshold for bone segmentation are key steps that greatly affect computational complexity and validity. In the following study, we evaluated an approach whereby Micro-CT derived grayscale attenuation and segmentation data guided the selection of trabecular bone for analysis by FEA. We further correlated those FEA results to both two- and three-dimensional bone microarchitecture from sham and ovariectomized (OVX) rats (