Fractal dimension from radiographs of bone as indicatos of possible osteoporosis

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a radiographic estimate of osseous fractal dimension is useful in the characterization of structural changes in bone. Ten specimens of bone were progressively decalcified in fresh 50 ml solutions of 0.1 N hydrochloric acid solution at cumulative timed periods of 5, 10, 20, 30, 60 and 90 minutes, and radiographed from 0 degree projection angle controlled by intraoral paralleling device. The test set of 70 radiographs was digitally filtered to reduce film-grain noise. I performed one-dimensional variance and fractal analysis of bony profiles or scan lines, Correlation analysis quantified the relationship between variance and fractal dimension. The obtained results were as follow ; 1. After the first stage of decalcification variance and fractal dimension of scan line pixel intensities generally decreased with a range of 57.94 to 12.64 and 1.59 to 1.36. 2. Correlation coefficient (r) relating variance to fractal dimension was consistently excellent (range r=0.90 to 0.98). 3. Variance and fractal dimension were much alike in ability to discriminate, at least on a group basis, between control and decalcified specimens.