STUDY OF TRABECULAR BONE IN RATS USING IMAGE PROCESSING

Osteoporosis is the most common osseous disease and it is considered a world problem. As the disease progresses, the bone structure diminish until it becomes very fragile and fractures risk up in region like femur and spine. The femoral neck and spine are spongy bone, which are formed by trabeculae in constant re-modeling regulated by osteoclast and osteoblast. When the balance between osteoclast and osteoblast is lost, removing bone process is faster than forming bone process, promoting the trabeculae thinning and eventually the osteoporosis. In order to count trabeculae, the experts traditionally use manual methods when they do not have automatic tools; this process introduces errors in the measurement. With the purpose of to count and to separate trabeculae, in this study a method is proposed that measure quantity, length and connections nodes in trabeculae regions, which are morphological characteristics indicators of the bone. The used images were obtained by an optical microscope starting with micro slides of bone. This approach provides an automatic tool of great utility in order to facility the process to the experts in medical area, and to avoid the cited errors in the manual count of trabeculae.\u