A comparison of the thresholding strategies of micro-CT for periodontal bone loss: a pilot study

Abstract

Objectives: Micro-CT provides three-dimensional details and has been widely used for biomedical assessments. This study aimed to determine the most appropriate threshold method for quantitatively assessing the dynamics of periodontal destruction. Methods: Inflammation was induced by submerging a silk ligature in the sulcus of the maxillary second molars of rats, and the animals were killed prior to ligature placement and after 7 and 21 days. The maxillae were examined for the bone resorptive activities by micro-CT, histology and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase staining. The imaging threshold was determined by CT phantom, global and local algorithms. A bone fraction measurement from each thresholddetermining technique was compared with histomorphometry. The reliability and reproducibility were examined by the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and the coefficient of variation. Results: Significant reduction of inflammatory infiltration (p , 0.01) and active osteoclastic resorption (p , 0.05) from Day 7 to Day 21 were noted. High inter-and intraexaminer agreement were demonstrated in both histomorphometric and micro-CT assessments (ICC . 0.98).The algorithm-based technique demonstrated stronger correlation to histomorphometry than phantom-based thresholds, and the highest agreement was presented by the local algorithm (ICC . 0.96). This, however, was considerably computationally expensive. Conclusions: The local threshold-determining algorithm is suggested for examining inflammation-induced bone loss. Further investigation will be aimed at enhancing computational efficiency.

Radiographic Healing after a Root Canal Treatment Performed in Single-rooted Teeth with and without Ultrasonic Activation of the Irrigant: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Although in in vitro studies the linear regression coefficient was 96.9%, thereby demonstrating a high reliability of the volumetric measurements with CBCT data, the percentage of deviation was up to 18% (17,29). Therefore, in this study, reduction and enlargement of the radiolucency were determined when the volume of the radiolucency had been reduced or enlarged by 20% or more.…”

“…Measurement of lesion volume on CBCT data in DICOM format (Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine) was performed by using Amira 5.4.3 (Visage Imaging GmbH, Berlin Germany) software. Local thresholddetermining algorithm (17) with manual tracing intervention was used to plot out the border of the lesion and calculate the volume (18). The length and density of root canal filling were determined as previously described (19,20).…”

Cone beam computed tomography evaluation of maxillary molar root canal morphology in a Turkish Cypriot population

“…ICC values higher than 0.75 were considered to show good reliability and low CV demonstrates the precision error as an indicator for reproducibility. [14] The relationship between the patients' sex or the sides and the incidence of additional canals was determined using the chi-square test. Differences were considered significant when p < 0.05.…”

Evaluation of genial tubercle anatomy using cone beam computed tomography

“…Values for the ICC ranged from 0 to 1. ICC values higher than 0.75 indicate good reliability, whereas a low CV demonstrates the precision error as an indicator of reproducibility (19). Pearson chi-squared test and ANOVA were performed (SPSS 17, Chicago, IL, USA) to assess the significance of inter-group differences in age, gender, and orthodontic malocclusion (P < 0.05).…”