DETERMINATION OF FRACTAL SCALES ON TRABECULAR BONE X-RAY IMAGES

A fractal analysis based on the Fractional Brownian Motion is proposed to characterize the architecture of the trabecular bone network. This analysis is applied on digital image lines of X-ray views. The study of self-similarity on images of calcaneus radiographs allows the determination of two length scales where the fractal hypothesis is verified. The first one is ranging from about 100 to 550 mu m. This area is used to characterize the bone structure at the trabecular thickness scale. The second one starts about above 900 mu m, it can be related to the trabecular spacing. A statistical approach allow to choose the fractal area given a level of significance.