Thick-section histometry of porous hydroxyapatite implants using backscattered electron imaging.

A histometry system has been developed to measure bone ingrowth into porous hydroxyapatite implants utilizing the backscattered electron image of thick sections. The system consists of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with backscattered electron detector, digital beam controller, minicomputer based image digitization, and microcomputer based image processing, point counting, and lineal analysis. The SEM backscattered electron imaging mode yields high tissue contrast and sharp tissue boundaries, substantially reducing the lost cap and projection effect errors of thick sections. High-resolution digitization of the image substantially reduces the standard error of the estimates. By using the digitized image the tedious process of filtering artifacts and recording actual point counts, intersections, and intercept lengths is delegated to computer software. Performance of this system in a recent study demonstrated substantial ease of operator use and speed of measurement. In the absence of a digital beam controller an inexpensive video digitizer circuit board may be used to digitize photographic prints of the SEM images. The combination of increased accuracy, precision, operator ease, and speed suggests that this system can be useful for soft tissue-bone-implant histometry.