Application of Fractal Analysis to the Diagnosis of Osteoporosis

Abstract

Osteoporosis is a condition of fragile bone caused by the decrease of bone quantity and the degradation of bone trabecula. In the diagnosis of osteoporosis, a quantitative evaluation of bone strength is important. Bone quantity is evaluated quantitatively by using an X-ray or ultrasound method. However, bone trabecula is visually evaluated for the moment only by observing an X-ray image. A method to evaluate bone trabecula quantitatively is therefore desired. In this study, we propose a method for aiding the diagnosis of osteoporosis by using fractal analysis of phalangeal CR image. In the proposed method, regions of interest (ROIs) are automatically extracted and the bone trabecular patterns of ROIs are quantitatively evaluated by the fractal analysis. In the experiments, the differences of fractal dimension between the normal and the osteoporosis patients were confirmed.