MICROFOCAL TECHNIQUES IN QUANTITATIVE RADIOGRAPHY - MEASUREMENT OF CANCELLOUS BONE ORGANIZATION

Microfocal radiography records, with unusually good resolution, the de tailed structural organization of cancellous bone. A textural imaging method, fractal signature analysis (FSA), was used to quantify the hor izontal and vertical trabecular organization recorded within macroradi ographic images of the spine of post-menopausal women and the tibia in osteoarthritic knees, and the analysis of variance method was applied to the wrist and hand of rheumatoid patients. Changes in trabecular s tructure were found to correlate with (i) body weight, age and bone mi neral density in the lumbar spine of post-menopausal women; (ii) the d egree of cartilage loss and age in the tibia of patients with knee OA; and (iii) analysis of variance quantified the extent of 'normal', ost eopaenic and eroded bone in rheumatoid joints. Quantitation of cancell ous bone organization can add significantly to our understanding of di sease processes and effect of therapy in diseased joints.