Correlation Between Histomorphometric and Micro-computed Tomography Analysis of Periapical Lesions in Mice Model

Abstract

Periapical lesions are processes mediated from bacterial invasion on the pulp tissue, which results in inflammatory process and bone resorption. Animal models have been used for the study of cell interactions and inflammatory responses involved in periapical lesion. The use of different methods for morphometric evaluation of this lesion has been reported. However, due to the limitation of 2D methods, computerized microtomography (µCT) has been indicated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between the histomorphometric measures of periapical lesions and the µCT analysis obtained in an animal experimental model. Briefly, the periapical lesions were induced by pulp exposal and after the experimental periods (7, 21 and 42 days) the mice were euthanized. The mandibles were evaluated under the µCT scanning and then were subjected to the routine histologic procedures, stained with hematoxilin and eosin. The periapical lesions were measured by the specific softwares of each technique. A weak correlation among the histomorphometric measurement and the 2D µCT analysis (r(2)= .204) and between the histomorphometric measurement and the 3D µCT analysis (r(2)= .237) was observed. A strong correlation between the 2D and 3D µCT analysis (r(2)= .867) was observed. Thereby, it can be concluded that the µCT is a method that allows a precise volumetric scanning and represents an important tool for morphometric evaluation.

Use of micro‐computed tomography for the assessment of periapical lesions in small rodents: a systematic review

“…, de Oliveira et al . ). Among the parameters, the voxel size, kilovoltage, current, scanning time, exposure time and filtering settings were those most commonly listed.…”

“…, de Oliveira et al . ). For the measurement of area, sections from the central region of the root, which simultaneously show the coronal, middle and apical thirds of the root, apical foramen and alveolar bone, are generally used (Sousa et al .…”

“…, de Oliveira et al . ). Only one study mentioned the orientation of the micro‐CT images (Kang et al .…”

“…) for selecting the region of interest and another described an “elliptical” ROI (de Oliveira et al . ). Four studies mentioned the use of “global thresholding” and “fixed thresholding” (von Stechow et al .…”

“…0.5 mm) (Sousa et al 2014). Six studies cited the voltage used (Balto et al 2002, Oseko et al 2009, Sousa et al 2014, Sun et al 2014, de Oliveira et al 2015, and four stated the current (Oseko et al 2009, Sousa et al 2014, Sun et al 2014). Three of these four studies, which reported the current, did it using the incorrect unitmilli-amperage (mA) instead of micro-amperage (lA).…”