A New 3D Method to Segment the Lumbar Vertebral Bodies and to Determine Bone Mineral Density and Geometry

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel 3D segmentation method for lumbar vertebrae in CT scans, combining deformable models, volume growing, and morphological operations to improve accuracy and precision for clinical osteoporosis assessment.

Contribution

The paper presents a new multi-step 3D segmentation approach that enhances accuracy and intra-operator precision for vertebral BMD and volume measurement in clinical CT data.

Findings

Intra-operator precision for BMD was better than 1%.

Segmentation accuracy was validated using the European Spine Phantom.

Method shows potential for clinical osteoporosis monitoring.

Abstract

In this paper we present a new 3D segmentation approach for the vertebrae of the lower thoracic and the lumbar spine in spiral computed tomography datasets. We implemented a multi-step procedure. Its main components are deformable models, volume growing, and morphological operations. The performance analysis that included an evaluation of accuracy using the European Spine Phantom, and of intra-operator precision using clinical CT datasets from 10 patients highlight the potential for clinical use. The intra-operator precision of the segmentation procedure was better than 1% for Bone Mineral Density (BMD) and better than 1.8% for volume. The long-term goal of this work is to enable better fracture prediction and improved patient monitoring in the field of osteoporosis. A true 3D segmentation also enables an accurate measurement of geometrical parameters that can augment the classical measurement of BMD.