Three-dimensional analyses of porous structures of ceramics and new bone formation in porous ceramic implants by high-resolution X-ray CT

Three-dimensional structural analyses of porous ceramics have been studied using high-resolution X-ray CT. Various porous bone ceramics were imaged by a micro-focus X-ray CT, and then reconstructed as 3-dimensional voxel images. After binary processing, the pore structures of the CT images were extracted and the volume of each pore was measured, which gave the histogram of pore size distribution. Some artificial bone ceramics were embedded in the body of rats and rabbits for several weeks. Several weeks after the embedding operation, the ceramics were extracted from the animal bodies and imaged by the CT, which gave the images of the newly formed bone in the bodies. After binary processing, the volumes were measured and the relationship between the pore structure and new bone formation was discussed. (author)