Advanced Image Analysis Techniques of New High-Resolution Images of the Proximal Femur in the Presence of Red and Yellow Bone Marrow Using Local Bone Enhancement Fuzzy Clustering

Jenny Folkesson¹, Julio Carballido-Gamio¹, Dimitrios C. Karampinos¹, Patrick Koon², Suchandrima Banerjee², Eric Han², Thomas M. Link¹, Sharmila Majumdar¹, Roland Krug¹

With the advent of new MR hardware and pulse sequences it is now possible to image the small trabecular structure of deeper seated regions like the proximal femur with high spatial resolution in a clinically feasible scan time. We employ a novel partial membership bone segmentation technique (BE-FCM) technique that enhances bone segmentation compared to an established dual thresholding method in the presence of signal variations due to different marrow types. We demonstrate that the new image acquisition and analysis framework enables trabecular bone analysis in the deeply situated femoral head, something which has been previously unfeasible in vivo.