Application of the Minkowski functionals in 3D to high-resolution MR images of trabecular bone: prediction of the biomechanical strength by nonlinear topological measures

Multi-dimensional convex objects can be characterized with respect to shape, structure, and the connectivity of their components using a set of morphological descriptors known as the Minkowski functionals. In a 3D Euclidian space, these correspond to volume, surface area, mean integral curvature, and the Euler-Poincaré characteristic. We introduce the Minkowski functionals to medical image processing for the morphological analysis of trabecular bone tissue. In the context of osteoporosis-a metabolic disorder leading to a weakening of bone due to deterioration of micro-architecture-the structure of bone increasingly gains attention in the quantification of bone quality. The trabecular architecture of healthy cancellous bone consists of a complex 3D system of inter-connected mineralised elements whereas in osteoporosis the micro-structure is dominated by gaps and disconnections. At present, the standard parameter for diagnosis and assessment of fracture risk in osteoporosis is the bone mineral density (BMD) - a bulk measure of mineralisation irrespective of structural texture characteristics. With the development of modern imaging modalities (high resolution MRI, micro-CT) with spatial resolutions allowing to depict individual trabeculae bone micro-architecture has successfully been analysed using linear, 2- dimensional structural measures adopted from standard histo-morphometry. The preliminary results of our study demonstrate that due to the complex - i.e. the non-linear - network of trabecular bone structures non-linear measures in 3D are superior to linear ones in predicting mechanical properties of trabecular bone from structural information extracted from high resolution MR image data.