Journal d'informatique et de biologie des systèmes

Development of a Relevant Image Processing Method to Characterize the Distribution of Tissue within a Bone Structure

Abstract

Duarte Ricardo, Delos Vincent, Ramos António, Teschke Marcus and Mesnard Michel

In this study one evaluate the efficiency of a new method to characterize the distribution of bone tissue within a human structure that could be wildly explored in research but especially in medical fields due to its simplicity and efficiency. Two different methods were used to characterize the distribution of tissue in the bone structure. The first was open source software (Image J) with a dedicated plug-in and the second was commercial software (Simpleware ScanIP). Using temporomandibular joint DICOM files, one evaluated the largest section of the condyle and the distance between the top of the condyle and the section with the least cancellous bone as a way to verify the accuracy of the method and the way that user’s skills influence the results. Finally, we built two 3D models based on the extreme cases considering the bone distribution. Results from the two methods were compared in order to validate the new proposed method. The comparison showed that the proposed method has enough feasibility to perform the bone distribution analysis, since the results, precision and repeatability were successfully confirmed. Furthermore, one states that the principal advantage of this method is the faster evaluation of the bone structures with a very satisfying precision which augurs good perspectives during its use in the medical fields.