Abstract
ObjectiveThis study compared the adequacy of dental cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and micro computed tomography (micro-CT) in evaluating the structural parameters of trabecular bones.MethodsThe cellular synthetic bones in 4 density groups (Groups 1–4: 0.12, 0.16, 0.20, and 0.32 g/cm3) were used in this study. Each group comprised 8 experimental specimens that were approximately 1 cm3. Dental CBCT and micro-CT scans were conducted on each specimen to obtain independent measurements of the following 4 trabecular bone structural parameters: bone volume fraction (BV/TV), specific bone surface (BS/BV), trabecular thickness (Tb.Th.), and trabecular separation (Tb.Sp.). Wilcoxon signed ranks tests were used to compare the measurement variations between the dental CBCT and micro-CT scans. A Spearman analysis was conducted to calculate the correlation coefficients (r) of the dental CBCT and micro-CT measurements.Results and ConclusionOf the 4 groups, the BV/TV and Tb.Th. measured using dental CBCT were larger compared with those measured using micro-CT. By contrast, the BS/BV measured using dental CBCT was significantly less compared with those measured using micro-CT. Furthermore, in the low-density groups (Groups 1 and 2), the Tb.Sp. measured using dental CBCT was smaller compared with those measured using micro-CT. However, the Tb.Sp. measured using dental CBCT was slightly larger in the high-density groups (Groups 3 and 4) than it was in the low density groups. The correlation coefficients between the BV/TV, BS/BV, Tb.Th., and Tb.Sp. values measured using dental CBCT and micro-CT were 0.9296 (p < .001), 0.8061 (p < .001), 0.9390 (p < .001), and 0.9583 (p < .001), respectively. Although the dental CBCT and micro-CT approaches exhibited high correlations, the absolute values of BV/TV, BS/BV, Tb.Th., Tb.Sp. differed significantly between these measurements. Additional studies must be conducted to evaluate using dental CBCT in clinical practice.
Highlights
The trabecular bone is a sponge like bone composed of numerous trabeculae
Micro-Computed tomography (CT) has been adopted as the standard for analyzing trabecular bone structures, it is unsuitable for use in clinical diagnoses because of scanning range restrictions
This study is the first to assess the structural parameters of cellular synthetic trabecular bones by using dental cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and micro-CT, comparing the results yielded by both systems
Summary
The trabecular bone is a sponge like bone composed of numerous trabeculae. Previous studies have reported that trabecular bone thicknesses ranges from 200 and 400 μm and the structure varies depending on the bone function and location in the body [1,2,3,4]. Several structural parameters are used to represent the architecture of the trabecular bone, namely, the bone volume fraction (BV/TV), trabecular number (Tb.N.), trabecular thickness (Tb.Th.), and trabecular separation (Tb.Sp.) [5]. Histology methods were typically employed to assess trabecular bone structure. Histological methods were invasive and inappropriate for use in clinical diagnoses. Histological methods provided only limited 2D information, which is inadequate for representing comprehensive 3D structures
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