Cancellous bone volume and structure in the forearm: noninvasive assessment with MR microimaging and image processing

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Wehrli, Felix W.¹; Hwang, Scott N.¹; Ma, Jingfei^1,2; Song, Hee Kwon¹; Ford, John C.¹; Haddad, John G.³

Cancellous bone volume and structure in the forearm: noninvasive assessment with MR microimaging and image processing

Radiology. February 1998;206(2):347-357

©1998 RSNA

Affiliations

¹Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, 3400 Spruce St, 1 Founders, Philadelphia, PA 19104

²Current address: GE Medical Systems, Milwaukee, Wis

³Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvaniaa Medical Center, 3400 Spruce St, 1 Founders, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Abstract and keywords

Purpose: To develop and apply a method for the derivation of cancellous bone architectural parameters from in vivo magnetic resonance (MR) images of the distal radius and to evaluate these parameters as predictors of vertebral fracture status in osteopenia.

Materials and Methods: MR images (137 x 137 x 500-micron3 voxel size) were acquired with a three-dimensional partial flip-angle spin-echo pulse sequence in the distal radius of 36 women. Subjects were classified as healthy or with osteoporosis on the basis of vertebral deformity and bone mineral density (BMD). Images rated as of adequate quality in 20 subjects were processed with a method that is applicable in the limited spatial resolution regime. The method relies on histogram deconvolution to obviate binary segmentation. Cancellous bone structure was treated as a quasi-regular lattice and analyzed with spatial autocorrelation, yielding parameters that quantify intertrabecular spacing, contiguity, and a measure of longitudinal alignment called tubularity.

Results: Whereas neither BMD nor any of the structural parameters individually correlated significantly with vertebral deformity fraction, a simple function that involved tubularity and longitudinal spacing predicted deformity fraction well (r = .78, P < .005).

Conclusion: Histomorphometric parameters characterizing cancellous bone in the distal radius can be derived from in vivo MR microimages and are predictive of vertebral deformity.

Keywords: Bones, measurement, 431.12146; Bones, MR. 431.12146, 431.12149; Images, analysis; Osteoporosis, 30.562,431.562; Radius, 431.12146, 431 .12149; Spine, fractures, 30.411, 30.5623
Links

DOI: 10.1148/radiology.206.2.9457185

PubMed: 9457185

WoS: 000071627700010
History

Received: 1997-07-11

Revised: 1997-08-20

Accepted: 1997-08-29

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