Automatic region of interest determination method in dual energy X-ray absorptiometry of the femur and spine

Precision of bone mineral density (BMD) measurements of spine, femur and forearm using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) is greatly influenced operator dependent factors. Therefore, automatic region of interest determination in DEXA is very important. This research shows new developed algorithm of automatic region of interest determination of the femur and spine. The automatic determination method can detect region of interest (ROI) of the femur and spine using image processing tools. Firstly, adaptive threshold and separation are carried out by the detection algorithm. Then, the points of ROI for femur and spine are detected. It was validated by femur and spine phantom and real patient images. Detection algorithm, validated program representation and, experiment results are presented in this paper.