Non Invasive Analysis Of Skeletal Structures

Question 1

What are clinical investigations?

Answer 1

Diagnosis of pathologies
Identification of fractures
Pre-surgical visualisation

Question 2

What are forensic purposes?

Answer 2

Assessment of microscopic trauma

Skeletal observation without defleshing/destroying

Question 3

What are imaging techniques?

Answer 3

2D and 3D

Question 4

What are 2D techniques?

Answer 4

Plane plate radiography
Modified plane plate radiography
Ultrasonography

Question 5

What are 3D techniques?

Answer 5

Computed tomography (CT)
MRI

Question 6

What are 3D imaging systems based on?

Answer 6

2D image capture

Question 7

What is each slice comprised of?

Answer 7

Pixels

Question 8

What is 3D data comprised of?

Answer 8

Voxels

Question 9

Resolution =

Answer 9

Pixel/voxel

Question 10

Why is radiography useful clinically?

Answer 10

Cheap, fast and low radiation dosage

Question 11

What is difficult about radiography?

Answer 11

Difficult to make accurate measurements

Question 12

What is good about modern digital plates?

Answer 12

Reusable and can be processed instantly using a specialised reader and computer software

Question 13

What is macro-radiography useful for?

Answer 13

Observing fine details

Question 14

What do modern digital detectors allow?

Answer 14

Very high resolution images

Question 15

What is based on x-ray radiography and digital detectors?

Answer 15

Computed Tomography

Question 16

What does a CT do?

Answer 16

Measure the transmission of a thin beam of x-rays through a full scan of the body

Question 17

What is the attenuation coefficient?

Answer 17

Is a quantity that characterises how easily a material or medium can be penetrated by a beam of light, sound, particles or other energy or matter

Question 18

How is X-ray attenuation represented?

Answer 18

Hounsfield units

Question 19

What are the 4 radio densities of the hounsfield scale?

Answer 19

Air, fat, water and compact bone

Question 20

What has no supraimposition?

Answer 20

CT

Question 21

What are the pros of CT?

Answer 21

Availability, large gantry size and relatively quick scan and reconstruction

Question 22

What are the cons of CT?

Answer 22

Poor spatial resolution, streak artefacts associated with bone, higher radiation dose than radiography and relatively high running costs

Question 23

What is specifically designed for high-resolution imaging bone?

Answer 23

Micro CT

Question 24

What are the pros of micro CT?

Answer 24

Great quantification of structural indices which aid in explaining bone form
High spatial resolution
Good contrast in dry bone

Question 25

What are the cons of micro CT?

Answer 25

Gantry size does not allow for imaging of whole bones Larger specimens result in lower resolution and loss of detail Long scan and reconstruction time

Question 26

What is based on the excitation of hydrogen nuclei in water

Answer 26

Magnetic resonance imaging

Question 27

Micro MRI can be used on what?

Answer 27

Much smaller scale

Question 28

What can micro MRI be applied to?

Answer 28

Visualisation of trabecular bone

Question 29

What do bone minerals lack?

Answer 29

Free protons

Question 30

What are the pros of Micro MRI?

Answer 30

Good contrast between tissue types | Non ionising

Question 31

What are the cons of the Micro MRI?

Answer 31

Good but limited resolution for trabecular analysis Limited resonator size Lengthy scan time

Question 32

What is virtopsy?

Answer 32

Implementation of modern imaging techniques to augment current examination techniques or offer alternative means of analysis

Question 33

What are the two reasons for imaging bone?

Answer 33

Clinical Investigations and Research Purposes

Question 34

What are the research purposes?

Answer 34

Investigation bone structure | Cortical and Trabecular bone