Geometric analysis of porous bone substitutes using micro-computed tomography and fuzzy distance transform

There is increased interest in resorbable bone substitutes for skeletal reconstruction. Important geometric design measures of bone substitute include pore size, interconnection size, porosity, permeability and surface area of the substitute. In this study, four substitute groups with variable geometric features but constant porosity were scanned using micro-computed tomography (μCT) and their geometric measures were determined using an advanced image-processing algorithm based on fuzzy distance transform and new pore size definition. The substitutes were produced using the calcium phosphate emulsion method. The geometric analysis revealed that the reproducibility of the emulsion method was high, within 5%. The average porosity of the four groups was 52.3 ± 1.5. The pore diameter of the four bone substitute groups was measured to be 170 ± 1.7, 217 ± 5.2, 416 ± 19, and 972 ± 11 μm. Despite this significant change in pore size, the interconnection size only increased slightly with an increase of pore size. The specific surface decreased with increasing pore size. The permeability increased with the pore size and was inversely proportional to the specific surface. The combination of μCT and the fuzzy image-processing tool enables accurate geometric analysis, even if pore size and image resolution are in the same range, such as in the case of the smallest pore size. Moreover, it is an exciting tool to understand the structure of the substitute with the hope of designing better bone substitutes.