earticle

영어

The purpose of this study is to identify the optimal threshold ranges for predicting osteoporosis and osteoporotic fractures by analyzing the correlations between the trabecular patterns and fracture risk factors of the proximal femur. We selected 85 post-menopausal women as experimental subjects and classified them into groups of 29 normal and 56 osteoporotic patients according to their T-scores. We proposed a novel thresholding algorithm, which divides the threshold ranges from 0% to 95% on the basis of the trabecular bone area, and assessed the osteoporosis predictability for each range. The evaluation parameters were categorized into four morphological parameters and six fracture risk factors. Consequently, we found the clinical usefulness of the proposed algorithm for discriminating the patients with osteoporosis from those with normal bone. Moreover, the significances between the morphological parameters and the fracture risk factors improved as the bone mineral density (BMD) decreased. Based on these experimental results, we selected the optimal threshold conditions for predicting osteoporosis and osteoporotic fractures at thresholds of 40%-80%.