New developments in x‐ray micro‐computed tomography technology and its applications to study bone micro‐architecture.

Developments in hardware and software capabilities, along with a significant increase in access to equipment and awareness of the methods, over the last 10 years have enabled micro‐computed tomography (CT) technology to establish itself as one of the basic tools to study bone micro‐architecture in the laboratory. A wide range of equipment is now available ranging from synchrotron based facilities to compact desktop scanners for small to large specimens and scanners for in vivo pre‐clinical imaging. The various scanners offer the ability to acquire images with resolution ranging from sub‐micron to 100 μm in acceptable scan times and where applicable, with acceptable x‐ray doses. More recently, high‐resolution scanners (under 100 μm) have become available for clinical research. Micro‐CT is now widely used to investigate bone from pre‐clinical models of various aging and pathologic conditions (osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and arthritis) as well as models for tissue regeneration and bone fracture repair as w...