Development of an Automatic Process for Calculation of Bone Defected Volume from Tomographic Images

Abstract

Predicting the shape and the volume of a bone defect and the adjusted implementation of a bone substitute is one of the most challenging goals of modern biomaterial science. The major need for practitioners before implantation is to precisely define the architecture and the volume of the defected bone to be filled. Imaging techniques are typically used to access this information. Generally, the defected bone is confused with its environment and with the image background. The use of traditional segmentation for the selection and isolation of the cavity to be filled proves to be difficult. In this work, a defect in a dead bone is created and then imaged with microtomography technique. The aim is to segment the shape and volume of the defect from both the bone and the background image. To realize those tasks, an adaptive morphological operation algorithm was used. The proposed method lets to segment and precisely calculate the volume of the cavity to fill. The method is subjectively and quantitatively evaluated using different computed phantoms. The accuracy of the method has been also verified by comparing the calculated volume of the bone defect and the volume of prepared calcium phosphate cement past necessary for its filling. The proposed algorithm overcomes the traditional poor performance. The efficiency of the method is clearly demonstrated through the different reports and generated measurements. The automatic process can be used favorably in implantology to realize and guide the surgical act and also in computer-aided scaffolding techniques. Funding Information: None to declare. Declaration of Interests: None to declare.