Panagiota Sotiropoulou, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

George Fountos, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Niki Martini, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Vaia Koukou, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Christos Michail MSc, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Ioannis Kandarakis, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

George Nikiforidis PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Compared with previous results, this method, based on energy resolving detector, can achieve better precision and accuracy in Ca/P bone mass ratio determination. Furthermore, this method, although it was tested preliminary in bone phantoms it can be applicable to patients, and can be used to follow-up skeletal disorders contributing to the diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis is a disease characterized by low bone mass and structural deterioration of bone tissue, leading to bone fragility and an increased susceptibility to fractures, especially of the hip, spine, and wrist. Several invasive and non-invasive methods are available for measuring the bone mineral status. Dual energy methods have been used for osteoporosis diagnosis. In this study, an X-ray Dual Energy (XRDE) method for bone quality assessment by the in vivo determination of Calcium to Phosphorus (Ca/P) mass ratio, using an energy discriminative photon counting detector, was performed.

Repeated measurements of each bone phantom provided an average 2% of Coefficient of Variation, revealing a precision able to distinguish differences in Ca/P mass ratio which ranges from 1.3 to 2.2 in adult human bone. The accuracy of the method was less than 3%.

A linear Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) detector was combined with a narrow pencil X-ray beam, suitably modified by filtration, to obtain transmission data from low- and high- energy bands. Three bone phantoms, simulating human radius, of different powders and Ca/P mass ratios, were used in order to determine the precision and accuracy of the method. The bone phantoms were irradiated with a 1300 µm Cerium (Ce) filtered X-ray, 100kVp spectrum, providing 38 and 86keV for the low- and high- mean energies, respectively. The precision and accuracy of XRDE method were evaluated by repeated measurements on bone phantoms.

Sotiropoulou, P, Fountos, G, Martini, N, Koukou, V, Michail, C, Kandarakis, I, Nikiforidis, G, In Vivo Determination of Human Radius Ca/P Ratio Using X-Ray Dual Energy Method.  Radiological Society of North America 2014 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, - ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2014/14012681.html