Analysis of the topological properties of the proximal femur on a regional scale: evaluation of multi-detector CT-scans for the assessment of biomechanical strength using local Minkowski functionals in 3D

In our recent studies on the analysis of bone texture in the context of Osteoporosis, we could already demonstrate the great potential of the topological evaluation of bone architecture based on the Minkowski Functionals (MF) in 2D and 3D for the prediction of the mechanical strength of cubic bone specimens depicted by high resolution MRI. Other than before, we now assess the mechanical characteristics of whole hip bone specimens imaged by multi-detector computed tomography. Due to the specific properties of the imaging modality and the bone tissue in the proximal femur, this requires to introduce a new analysis method. The internal architecture of the hip is functionally highly specialized to withstand the complex pattern of external and internal forces associated with human gait. Since the direction, connectivity and distribution of the trabeculae changes considerably within narrow spatial limits it seems most reasonable to evaluate the femoral bone structure on a local scale. The Minkowski functionals are a set of morphological descriptors for the topological characterization of binarized, multi-dimensional, convex objects with respect to shape, structure, and the connectivity of their components. The MF are usually used as global descriptors and may react very sensitively to minor structural variations which presents a major limitation in a number of applications. The objective of this work is to assess the mechanical competence of whole hip bone specimens using parameters based on the MF. We introduce an algorithm that considers the local topological aspects of the bone architecture of the proximal femur allowing to identify regions within the bone that contribute more to the overall mechanical strength than others.