J Korean Acad Oral Maxillofac Radiol.  1998 Feb;28(1):17-26.

Fractal dimension from radiographs of bone as indicatos of possible osteoporosis

• Lee KI

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate wether a radiographic estimate of osseous fractal dimension is useful in the characterization of structural changes in bone. Ten specimens of bone were progressively decalcified in fresh 50ml solutions of 0.1N hydrochloric acid solution at cummulative timed periods of 5, 10, 20, 30, 60 and 90 minutes, and radiographed from 0 degree projection angle controlled by intraoral parelleling device. The test set of 70 radiographs was digitally filtered to reduce film-grain noise. I performed one-dimensional variance and fractal analysis of bony profiles or scan lines, Correlation analysis quantified the relationship between variance and fractal dimension. The obtained results were as follow ; 1. After the first stage of decalcification variance and fractal dimension of scan line pixel intensities generally decreased with a range of 57.94 to 12.64 and 1.59 to 1.36. 2. Correlation coefficient(r) relating variance to fractal dimension was consistantly excellent(range r=0.90 to 0.98). 3. Variance and fractal dimension were much alike in ability to discriminate, at leat on a group basis, between contrl and decalcified specimens.

MeSH Terms

Fractals*
Hydrochloric Acid
Noise
Osteoporosis*
Hydrochloric Acid