Effect of specimen conditioning on the microarchitectural parameters of trabecular bone assessed by micro-computed tomography

Abstract

The best way to preserve the mechanical properties of bone specimens is hydration in NaCl, whereas the reference process in microCT analysis is defatting. However, for finite element modelling (FEM) it is necessary to use the same bone specimens for biomechanical testing and 3D imaging. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of sample conditioning on trabecular bone microarchitectural parameters. Trabecular bones were analysed by microCT under three successive conditions: first, the fatted samples were analysed immersed in NaCl (process N); second, they were hydrated for 24 h then imaged without immersion (process H); third, the samples were defatted before analysis (process D). The microarchitectural parameters bone volume/tissue volume (BV/TV), trabecular spacing (Tb.Sp), number (Tb.N) and thickness (Tb.Th) were calculated. Except for BV/TV, there was no significant difference between the processes N and D. In process H, BV/TV, Tb.Th and Tb.N were higher and BS/BV and Tb.Sp were lower than in process D. Results showed that the process D may be replaced by the process N. The process H induced significant differences in microarchitectural parameters when compared to process D. Nevertheless, this sample conditioning should be used to develop FEM when microCT images are to be acquired during compressive testing.

Simultaneous 3D visualization and quantification of murine bone and bone vasculature using micro‐computed tomography and vascular replica

“…In this process, marrow fat is removed and the differential contrast between the reconstructed vascular corrosion cast and its surroundings in the reconstructed tomographic data set is increased. Therefore, chemical bone delipidation using different organic solvents (Beaupied et al, 2006;Chappard et al, 2004Chappard et al, , 2006Johnson et al, 2000;Moreau et al, 2000;Pruss et al, 1999;Worth et al, 2005) was tested. To test for possible physical damage, blue PU was submerged for several days in acetone, butanone, chloroform, dichloromethane, ethanol, methanol, and methyl salicylate before measuring with lCT.…”

Determination of bone porosity based on histograms of 3D μCT images

“…The crucial step for this process is image thresholding, which defines a limiting value of the gray level that separates all points M. Cieszko (&) Á Z. Szczepański Á P. Gadzała(voxels) of the scan into two subsets constituting the matrix and the pore space. One can distinguish six groups of image thresholding methods [22]: local [23,24], global [25,26], based on the shape of the histogram [27], and using such tools as clustering [15], entropy [28], and fuzzy logic.…”

“…These are often used in microtomographic image analysis of human and animal bones [2,10,25,26,[30][31][32].…”

Micro-computed tomography assessment of human femoral trabecular bone for two disease groups (fragility fracture and coxarthrosis): Age and gender related effects on the microstructure

“…Although, there are studies on the micro-computed tomography applied to trabecular bone, which deal with the impact of the procedure variables on the accuracy of the measurements, each case is a different case with its own particular characteristics depending on the apparatus properties, process variables and sample properties [2,43,44]. Prior to the application of the micro-CT technique to a large number of samples, a study on the effects of some procedure variables is advantageous.…”