STRUCTURE-ANALYSIS OF TRABECULAR BONE IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF OSTEOPOROSIS

Osteoporosis is characterized by reduced bone mass and a deterioration of bone structure which results in an increased fracture risk. The pu rpose of this review is to evaluate structure analysis techniques in t he diagnosis of osteoporosis. Several imaging techniques were applied to analyze trabecular bone, such as conventional radiography, high-res olution computed tomography (HR-CT) and high-resolution magnetic reson ance imaging (HR-MRI). The best results were obtained using high-resol ution tomographic techniques. The highest spatial resolutions in vivo were achieved using HR-MRI. These studies show that texture parameters and bone mineral density predict bone strength and osteoporotic fract ures in a complementary fashion. Combining both techniques yields the best results in the diagnosis of osteoporosis.