Virtual supersampling as post-processing step preserves the trabecular bone morphometry in human peripheral quantitative computed tomography scans

Abstract

In the clinical field of diagnosis and monitoring of bone diseases, high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) is an important imaging modality. It provides a resolution where quantitative bone morphometry can be extracted in vivo on patients. It is known that HR-pQCT provides slight differences in morphometric indices compared to the current standard approach micro-computed tomography (micro-CT). The most obvious reason for this is the restriction of the radiation dose and with this a lower image resolution. With advances in micro-CT evaluation techniques such as patient-specific remodeling simulations or dynamic bone morphometry, a higher image resolution would potentially also allow the application of such novel evaluation techniques to clinical HR-pQCT measurements. Virtual supersampling as post-processing step was considered to increase the image resolution of HR-pQCT scans. The hypothesis was that this technique preserves the structural bone morphometry. Supersampling from 82