Bailiang Chen1, Pierre-Andr Vuissoz2,3,
Amaka Offiah4, Martin Fry1, Andrew Todd-Pokropek1
1Medical Physics and Bioengineering,
University College London, London, United Kingdom; 2IADI,
Nancy-Universit, Nancy, France; 3U947, INSERM , Nancy, France; 4Academic
Unit of Child Health, Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield,
United Kingdom
Trabecular
bone orientation, together with bone mineral density, plays an important role
in evaluating bone quality. This
structural information is also a key parameter in bridging bone mechanical
behaviour at a macro-scale and its functional adaptation at a cellular scale.
Trabecular bone can be considered as a typical porous media. Through
anisotropic diffusion within red marrow, DTI can be used as a probe of
trabecular bone orientation in-vivo. Here, we present the current results of
our in-vivo studies applying DTI to human tibia, its reproducibility and the
techniques ability to reveal trabecular network orientation at a
micro-scale.