MPEG-7-like Description Scheme for Osteoporosis Diagnosis Support

Osteoporosis is a bone disease characterized by the loss of bone mass and by bone microarchitectural modifications. Bone mass (or bone density) can be precisely (and expensively) measured by specialized equipment (such as DEXA); microarchitectural modification are yet subjectively graded and evaluated by the radiologist. The goal of this research is to investigate the possible automatic detection of osteoporosis, based on digital image processing and analysis techniques (MPEG-7 image content description scheme) applied to digitized X-ray films of the calcaneum bones