3D morphology of the rear foot from MRI data: technical validation and clinical description

摘要

Abstract: The purpose of this work is to characterize the 3D morphology of the bones of the rear foot using MR data. This work has two subaims: (1) to study the variability of the various computed architectural measures as a result of the subjectivity and variations in the various processing operations; (2) to study the morphology of the bones included in the peritalar complex. Each image data set utilized in this study consists of 60 longitudinal slices of the foot acquired on a 1.5 T commercial GE MR system. Our description of the rear foot morphology is based mainly on the principal axes, which represent the inertia axes of the bones, as well as on the bone surfaces. We use the live-wire method for segmenting and forming the surfaces of the bones. In the first part of this work, we focus on the dependence of the principal axes system on segmentation and on scan orientation. In the second part, we describe the normal morphology of the rear foot considering the four bones (calcaneus, cuboid, navicular, talus) and compare them to a population from the Upper Pleistocene. We conclude that this non-invasive method can be used in live patients to characterize the bone morphology or as a comparative method to classify population of bones. in spite of the variations involved in the various processing operations. !18