AN ASSESSMENT OF COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY AND RELATED TECHNOLOGY AS AN IMPROVED MEANS OF CHARACTERIZING BONE STRUCTURE

A METHOD OF DEMONSTRATING COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY (CT) TEAMED WITH SOFTWARE IMAGE PROCESSING METHODS AS A QUANTITATIVE MEANS OF EVALUATING BONE STRUCTURE, DENSITY AND GEOMETRY OF THE HUMAN MUSCULOSKELETAL SYSTEM IS PROPOSED. THE FEASIBILITY OF CT TECHNIQUES APPLIED TO OSTEOPOROSIS FEMUR SPECIMENS IN ORDER TO EVALUATE DISEASE EXTENT AND SEVERITY WILL BE INVESTIGATED. PHYSICAL AND MECHANICAL PROPERTY TESTING OF SPECIMENS WILL BE CONDUCTED TO ESTABLISH THE FEASIBILITY OF CORRELATING CT MEASURED DENSITY WITH CRITICAL MATERIAL PROPERTIES. THE FEASIBILITY OF USING CT DATA AS INPUT TO FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS TO ASSESS BIO-MEDICAL FUNCTIONING OF THE HUMAN BODY AND FRACTURE RISKS OF BONES WILL BE INVESTIGATED.