Bailiang Chen1, Bernard Siow2,
David Carmichael1,3, Freddy Odille2, Roger Ordidge1,
Andrew Todd-Pokropek1
1Medical Physics and Bioengineering,
University College London, London, United Kingdom; 2Centre for
Medical Image Computing, University College London, London, United Kingdom; 3Institute
of Neurology , University College London, London, United Kingdom
The
recently proposed SPENT sequence can provide direction specific information
based on the sub-voxel structural uniformity of a sample. Analogous to
diffusion tensor imaging, given a voxel with a local anisotropic structure
(e.g. trabecular bone), it is possible to characterize the orientation of
sub-pixel micro-structure by applying SPENT with multiple directions. A
6-direction SPENT series was applied to a chicken femur head in order to
characterize its trabecular bone orientation by reconstructing a 2D tensor in
each voxel. Both tensor statistics and eigensystems were computed and showed
good qualitative agreement with data from a subsequent micro-CT acquisitions.