Calibration of Micro-CT Data for Quantifying Bone Mineral and Biomaterial Density and Microarchitecture

With the awareness of the importance of the bone architecture to the overall stability of bone, micro-CT has become the gold standard for 3D static histomorphometry in bone research over the past 10 years. Nevertheless, bone densitometry is still the method of choice in the clinical environment. It is, however, anticipated that only a combination of the two methods, densitometry and morphometry, will improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients. This chapter introduces the calibration of micro-CT for quantification of bone mineral and material density at both organ and tissue levels and its impact in bone and mineral research based on bone biopsy. This approach may also be widely applied to measure the density of other appreciated materials.