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Dentomaxillofacial Radiology (2006) 35, 319-325
© 2006 British Institute of Radiology
doi: 10.1259/dmfr/50217408

RESEARCH

A sensitive method for measuring spatial orientation in bone structures

WGM Geraets*,1, LJ van Ruijven2, JGC Verheij1, TMGJ van Eijden2 and PF van der Stelt1

1 Department of Oral Radiology, Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA), Amsterdam, The Netherlands; 2 Department of Functional Anatomy, Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA), Amsterdam, The Netherlands

*Correspondence to: Dr Wil GM Geraets, ACTA Radiology Department, Louwesweg 1, 1066 EA Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Email: wgeraets{at}acta.nl

Received 14 June 2005; revised 11 October 2005; accepted 5 December 2005

Objectives: This article introduces the newly developed line frequency deviation (LFD) method for measuring the orientation of the trabecular structure and shows that it is more sensitive than the mean intercept length (MIL) method that is commonly used.

Methods: The LFD method, which has been developed to measure the orientation of bone on two-dimensional X-ray images, was expanded to handle three-dimensional shapes. For the purpose of comparison, both the LFD and the MIL methods were applied to micro CT scans of 24 trabecular bone samples as well as to 24 simple synthetic samples. LFD and MIL values were calculated in various directions and collected in polar plots. Next, the anisotropy was quantified by calculating the coefficient of variation as well as by fitting ellipsoids through the plots.

Results: The MIL method yielded smooth rather spherical ellipsoidal polar plots with almost no sensitivity for changes in structure. The LFD method yielded more slender polar plots and more sensitivity for geometrical changes. The LFD method yielded significantly more anistropy and larger variation in anisotropy.

Conclusions: The LFD method is a more sensitive descriptor of spatial orientation of bone structures than the MIL method.

Keywords: anisotropy; bone structure; mean intercept length; spatial orientation






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