Department of Biomedical Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, 603 203, India.
Department of Chemistry, C. Kandasamy Naidu college for women, Cuddalore, 607 001, India.
J Med Syst. 2019 Apr 22;43(6):148. doi: 10.1007/s10916-019-1268-7.
Osteoporosis detection at earlier stages can enhance the life span of an elderly individual. The aim of the study is to perform semi-automated measurement of mandibular cortical thickness (MCT) on a dental panoramic radiograph (DPR) and thereby to predict the risk of low BMD among the studied population. The study involved 76 women (mean age: 57.2 ± 12.6 years). The DPR was obtained using KODAK 8000C system. The BMD of right total hip (T-BMD) was obtained using DPX Prodigy Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) Scanner. The DPR obtained were subjected to image processing techniques to perform MCT measurement. The region of interest was manually selected around the mental foramen and enhanced using a median filter. The Ostu segmentation was performed and connected component labelling operation was performed to determine the lower boundary by finding the contour with maximum area. Subsequently, the haar wavelet operation was carried out to find the magnitude and thereby select the upper delineating cortical boundary. The Pearson test results revealed (r = 0.96, p < 0.01) for the standard (manual) MCT measurement against the MCT measured using the proposed semi-automated scheme. ROC analysis revealed that MCT = 2.5 mm could be an optimal threshold in spotting individuals at risk of low BMD. The results of the study revealed that the MCT measured on a DPR using the proposed approach could be helpful for identifying individuals at risk of low BMD.
在早期发现骨质疏松症可以延长老年人的寿命。本研究的目的是在牙科全景放射影像（DPR）上进行下颌皮质厚度（MCT）的半自动测量，从而预测研究人群中低骨密度的风险。该研究纳入了 76 名女性（平均年龄：57.2±12.6 岁）。DPR 使用 KODAK 8000C 系统获取。右侧总髋部（T-BMD）的 BMD 使用 DPX Prodigy 双能 X 射线吸收仪（DXA）扫描仪获取。对获取的 DPR 进行图像处理技术，以进行 MCT 测量。手动选择颏孔周围的感兴趣区域，并使用中值滤波器进行增强。进行 Ostu 分割，并执行连通分量标记操作，通过找到具有最大面积的轮廓来确定下边界。随后，进行 haar 小波操作，以找到幅度，从而选择上界定皮质边界。Pearson 检验结果显示（r=0.96，p<0.01），与手动测量标准 MCT 相比，半自动测量方案测量的 MCT。ROC 分析显示，MCT=2.5mm 可能是识别低骨密度风险个体的最佳阈值。研究结果表明，使用所提出的方法在 DPR 上测量的 MCT 有助于识别低骨密度风险的个体。
