Comparing rib cortical thickness measurements from computed tomography (CT) and Micro-CT

Abstract

Background: The objective of this study was to compare cortical thickness of rib specimens scanned with clinical computed tomography (clinical-CT) at 0.5 and 1.0 mm slice thickness versus micro-CT at 0.05 mm slice thickness. Cortical thickness variation and accuracy was explored by anatomical region (anterior vs. lateral) and cross-sectional quadrants (superior, interior, inferior, and exterior). Methods: A validated cortical thickness algorithm was applied to clinical-CT and micro-CT scans of 17 rib specimens from six male post mortem human subjects aged 42–81 years. Each rib specimen was segmented and the thickness measurements were partitioned into cross-sectional quadrants in the anterior and lateral regions of the rib. Within each rib quadrant, the following were calculated: average thickness ± standard deviation, mean thickness difference between clinical-CT and micro-CT, and a thickness ratio between clinical-CT and micro-CT. Correlations from linear regression and paired-t tests were determined for paired clinical-CT and micro-CT results. Results: On average, the 0.5 mm clinical-CT underestimated the micro-CT thickness by 0.005 mm, while the 1.0 mm clinical-CT overestimated the micro-CT thickness by 0.149 mm. Thickness derived from 0.5 mm clinical-CT showed greater significant linear correlations (p < 0.05) with micro-CT thickness compared to 1.0 mm clinical-CT. Conclusions: The small mean differences and thickness ratios near 1 show validation for the cortical thickness algorithm when applied to rib clinical-CT scans. Using clinical-CT scans as way to accurately measure rib cortical thickness offers a non-invasive way to analyze millions of CT scans collected each year from males and females of all ages.

Quantifying the Human Subchondral Trabecular Bone Microstructure in Osteoarthritis with Clinical CT

“…The challenging manual measurement of human calcified tissue thickness may be improved using automatic VOI selection and fitting algorithms. [ 30 ] Based on previous data, [ 26 , 28 ] FD, Conn.Dn, and DA cannot be reliably assessed with clinical CT and need to be measured in vivo with HR‐pQCT. [ 26e ] Nevertheless, most studies [ 26 , 27 ] report chiefly BV/TV, Tb.Th, Tb.Sp, and Tb.N, and our data show these can reliably characterize mild‐to‐moderate and severe OA when supplemented with BS/TV, BS/BV, Tb.Pf, and SMI.…”

“…Applying such structural bone measures will further improve our understanding of OA, and may contribute to the development of reliable machine learning‐based methods [ 31 ] by implementing precise automatic VOI selection and thresholding algorithms that require minimal operator input. [ 30 ] Detection of microstructural OA alterations by clinical CT could also implement deep learning and artificial intelligence tools, including fully automated knee tissue segmentation, disease characterization with KL grades, and identification of structural joint pathologies with excellent diagnostic performance, as with other techniques. [ 6 ] Clinical studies are now warranted to define the range of subchondral bone parameters in different stages of OA or other structural bone diseases by clinical CT, among which osteoporosis, e.g., in multi‐center trials and big data analyses and finally testing its broad application and exact sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in a cross‐sectional study population.…”

Ontogenetic changes to bone microstructure in an archaeologically derived sample of human ribs

“…Although micro‐CT scanners became commercially available in the 1990s (Feldkamp et al ; Ruegsegger et al ), few studies to date have focused on human ribs. Prior research has sought to address methodological questions rather than to characterize the bone tissue structure (Li et al ; Sanchez‐Molina et al ; Leszczyński et al ; Perz et al ; Hostetler et al ). We believe that this is the first study to three‐dimensionally quantify changes to cortical and trabecular bone microstructure in juvenile human ribs.…”

The Effects of 2-Aminoethoxydiphenyl Borate (2-APB) and Dantrolene on Rat Bones Treated With&nbsp;NaAsO2

“…Micro-CT, as a new imaging technology, is non-invasive and has high precision and resolution [9,10] . It can obtain three-dimensional information of complex structures, evaluate bone mineral density and bone structure, and provide an estimate of the pathological state of bone [10] .…”