Trabecular Bone Class Mapping Across Resolutions: Translating Methods from HR-pQCT to Clinical CT

摘要

Quantitative assessment of 3D bone microarchitecture in high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) has shown promise in fracture risk assessment and biomechanics, but is limited to the distal radius and tibia. Trabecular microarchitecture classes (TMACs), based on voxel-wise clustering texture and structure tensor features in HRpQCT, is extended in this paper to quantify trabecular bone classes in clinical multi-detector CT (MDCT) images. Our comparison of TMACs in 12 cadaver radii imaged using both HRpQCT and MDCT yields a mean Dice score of up to 0.717 ± 0.040 and visually concordant bone quality maps. Further work to develop clinically viable bone quantitative imaging using HR-pQCT validation could have a significant impact on overall bone health assessment.