Small animals bone density and morphometry analysis with a Dual Energy X-Rays absorptiometry bone densitometer using a 2D digital radiographic detector.

摘要

The LEXXOS (DMS, Montpellier, France) is the first axial and total body cone beam bone densitometer using a 2Ddigital radiographic detector. Technical principles and performances for BMD measurements have been presented inprevious papers. Bone densitometers are also used on small animals for drug development. In this paper, we show howthe LEXXOS system can be adapted to small animals examinations, and its performances are evaluated. At first, in orderto take advantage of the whole area of the digital flat panel X-ray detector, the geometrical configuration has beenadapted. Secondly, as small animals present low BMD, a specific dual energy calibration has been defined. This adaptedsystem has then been evaluated on two sets of mice: six reference mice and six ovariectomized mice. Each month, thesetwo populations have been examined and the total body BMD has been measured. This evaluation has shown that theright order of BMD magnitude has been obtained and, as expected, BMD increases on the two sets until age of pubertyand after this period, decreases significantly for the ovariectomized set. Moreover, the bone image obtained by dualenergy processing on LEXXOS presents a radiographic image quality providing with useful complementary informationon bone morphometry and architecture.