Automatic processing and analysis of the structural properties of bone tissue

Elena Semenova,Nikita Kharin,Pavel Bolshakov,Viktoriya Yaikova,Anastasiya Ivanova,A Glezer,S Roshchupkin

doi:10.1051/matecconf/202032903077

Abstract

The volumetric distribution of bone tissue can be analysed in terms of orthotropic medium. In this case, it is important to define the orthotropic directions. Nowadays, computed tomography methods allow getting such information. The method for automation such analysis is presented. Firstly, the threshold of binarization should be calculated. Then the sample should be meshed and each element should be binarized. After that fabric tensor, eigenvalues, eigenvectors and fractional anisotropy can be calculated for each element. Statistical methods were used to analyse the field of the obtained data. Described methods were used on a bone sample. It was shown that for a sample the fabric tensor is constant and the fractional anisotropy is close to zero. That’s means that the medium in the sample was isotropic.

Highlights

Modern medical treatment is most often based on biomechanical modeling
To estimate the degree of anisotropy, we introduce fractional anisotropy, that can be calculated using the eigenvalues of the fabric tensor: rrrr
The technique of direct fabric tensor calculation according to computed tomography data is presented

Summary

Introduction

Modern medical treatment is most often based on biomechanical modeling. This approach improves the quality of treatment. It has been shown that the mechanical properties of bone tissue correlate with computed tomography data [9,10,11,12]. This means that quantitative information about the quality of bone tissue can be obtained at the diagnostic stage. There are various methods for assessing the orthotropic properties of the medium, such as representative models [13,14,15], inhomogeneous FE models [16, 17], direct FE models [18] and mixed methods [19,20,21] Another problem of such analysis is to obtain the distribution of mechanical properties in the object under study. The obtained data can be useful in various biomechanical calculations, such as determination of bone defects before [22,23,24,25] and after [26,27,28] surgery

Methods

Results

Conclusion