Investigação da microarquitetura óssea através de microtomografia 3D

Abstract

X-Ray Computed Microtomography (uCT) is a nondestructive technique used to study the internal structure of bones with a spatial resolution of the order of microns. In this study, six pairs of bone samples (femur mouse) were studied by uCT. The tests were conducted in the absence or presence of aluminum filters (thickness of 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75 mm), using three different resolution levels: 33.3, 15.0 and 9.5 um. The bone architecture parameters BS (surface area of the trabecular bone), BV (bone volume of the sample), TS (surface area of the sample), TV (sample volume), BV/TV (bone volume fraction), BS/BV (ratio bone surface and volume), Tb.N (trabecular density), Tb.Th (trabecular spacing), Tb.Sp (trabecular separation), connectivity and anisotropy were determined by 2D and/or 3D analysis. The comparison between the values of the parameters obtained in these analysis was performed using the t test and Pearson correlation. Based on the results it was possible to determine the influence of image resolution on the quality of the bone architecture parameters obtained in the 2D and/or 3D analysis. The data also show that the presence of aluminum filter affects the quality of these parameters. Thus, the best results are obtained with maximum resolution and aluminum filter with a thickness of 0.25 or 0.50 mm.