Femur bone volumetric estimation from a single x-ray image for osteoporosis diagnosis

BMD (Bone Mineral Density) is an indicator of osteoporosis that is serious disease, particularly for elderly. To calculate BMD, we need to measure volume by noninvasive way. This paper proposes noninvasive bone volume measurement method. A novel method is presented for a volumetric of femur bone which uses a computer-based procedure to estimate volumetric from a single x-ray image. We use an active contour model (ACM) for 2D segmentation. Volumetric technique that the thickness of femur region mapping to a pixels are determined using a physical model of image acquisition and knowledge base of the doctor. From above, we can construct a femur bone of each pixel. Therefore we can determine a volumetric of femur bone. In this paper, we also present a volumetric of femur bone, to evaluate results of the proposed method by actual experiments. We compare a BMD of the proposed method results with a BMD of CT-SCAN results.