Sélim Bensalah, Sylvie Sevestre-Ghalila, and Christine Chappard
3D imaging, synchrotron radiation micro-CT, cortical bone, boneremodelling
The main determinant of hip fractures, which are one of the most frequent osteoporotic fractures, is the fragility of the cortical bone. Micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) is used to characterize the porosity of cortical bone, which is composed of a network of Haversian canals and Volkmann canals. This network is constantly changing as a result of the remodelling process, the last step being the trabecularization of cortical bone. The features that are commonly used to characterize bone are derived from trabecular bone and thus do not capture the large heterogeneity and complexity of the cortical bone canal network, which exhibits large variability in the surface and shape of the canals with a gradient from the periosteum to the endosteum. We used high-resolution synchrotron radiation micro-CT images (2.8 µm) and proposed three new local features for the characterization of the regularity, branching degree, and sinuosity/tortuosity of these canals at the individual level. These new parameters introduce new perspectives that allow a better understanding of cortical bone remodelling and a better characterization of the intermediate forms between canals and resorption cavities.
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