ABSTRACT
In past studies structural parameters were determined for either high-resolution μCT images of small trabecular bone samples or for images of larger samples acquired with a resolution comparable to a typical trabecular thickness. Restricting analysis to arbitrarily selected regions was certainly justified at the stage of developing and verifying measurement methodology. Nowadays there are technical possibilities to acquire μCT images of whole human bones with resolution substantially better than a typical trabecular thickness. The analysis of these large data also does not pose a technical problem and accurate and precise determination of structural parameters for whole bones is possible. This approach has been followed in few studies so far (Wegrzyn et al. 2010, Roux
1 INTRODUCTION
The problem of improving procedures of diagnosing osteoporosis remains a challenge for contemporary bone research. Mechanical competence of bone, which is the primary determinant of the risk of osteoporotic fracture cannot be directly assessed in vivo and thus many indirect methods to quantify the risk of fracture have been proposed. In clinical practice only densitometry-based methods are used however, i.e. the measurement of bone mass density (BMD) or bone mineral content (BMC). Although decreased value of BMD or BMC is, according to WHO, the primary symptom of osteoporosis, 55% to 70% osteoporotic fractures are observed in patients with normal BMD, which thus do not conform to the diagnostic criterion recommended by WHO (Wainwright et al. 2005). Thus it has been claimed that BMD measurement should be supplemented with architectural information to improve diagnosis (Ciarelli et al. 1991).
