Jump to:
Purpose
To asses bone mineral content and morphology of the femur and vertebrae.
Experimental Design
Equipment
- Faxitron MX20
- Faxitron Software
- Forceps
- Perspex shelf containing image window and the 3 standards
- Tape
- Image J with macros
- Adobe Photoshop
Procedure
- Set up and calibrate the Faxitron machine.
-
Bones should be arranged the same way for each image ensuring everything is visible and there is no overlap. Ensure that the controls for mineralisation (plastic, aluminium and steel wires) are visible in the image.
- The tail should be straight and flat with the dark line running along it facing downwards and the proximal end at the top of the image.
- Caudal vertebrae 6 and 7 are to be used in the analysis and must be visible with no overlap.
-
Insert tray to top shelf of the Faxitron machine and image for 25 seconds at 26 kV.
- Reimage if positioning is not correct.
- Analyse image.
Notes
Data analysis
- Edit soft tissue out of the image.
- Assess the relative mineral content using ImageJ grey scale histogram obtained from the plastic (grey level 0) and steel (grey level 255) standards.
- In ImageJ calibrate for distance using an appropriate image.
- Using the straight line tool in ImageJ measure the height of caudal vertebrae 6 and 7 from centre top to centre bottom and record the average height.