CHANGE IN TRABECULAR ARCHITECTURE AS MEASURED BY FRACTAL DIMENSION

The objective of this work was to expose dried trabecular bone materia l to a decalcifying environment and to quantify the change in the spat ial distribution of the bone with a fractal measure. Digitized radiogr aphic images were produced from four separate slices of human vertebra l bone as they dissolved within a solution of nitric acid. Pixel data from a region of interest (ROI) within the trabecular bone were used t o estimate the time-dependent change in fractal dimension of the ROI a s the bone dissolved. Results demonstrated that a change in the spatia l distribution of trabecular material may be expressed in terms of a c oncurrently changing estimate of the fractal dimension. (C) 1996 Elsev ier Science Ltd.