• A C Langheinrich, C Stolle, M Kampschulte, D Lommel, W S Rau, and B Bassaly.
• Department of Radiology, University of Giessen, Giessen, Germany. alexander.langheinrich@radiol.med.uni-giessen.de
• Acta Radiol. 2008 Oct 1;49(8):940-8.

BackgroundOsteosarcoma and chondrosarcoma are the most common nonhematopoietic primary malignancies of bone. However, unusual radiographic appearances can lead to delay in diagnosis and confusion with benign diseases.PurposeTo evaluate the feasibility of micro-computed tomography (CT) for the analysis of primary, nonhematopoietic human bone tumors ex vivo.Material And MethodsSamples from 12 human bone specimens (osteosarcoma, n=6; chondrosarcoma, n=6) obtained for diagnostic purposes were scanned using industrial X-ray film without amplifier foil and scanned with micro-CT (7- and 12-microm-cubic voxels). Trabecular bone CT "density" and tumor matrix CT "density" were determined, and results were compared with those obtained from a detailed conventional histopathologic analysis of corresponding cross-sections. The significance of differences in grayscale measurements was tested with analysis of variance.ResultsMicro-CT provided quantitative information on bone morphology equivalent to histopathological analysis. We established grayscale measurements by which tumor matrices of chondrosarcoma and osteosarcoma could be radiographically categorized following histological classifications (P<0.001).ConclusionMicro-CT is feasible for the analysis and differentiation of human osteosarcoma and chondrosarcoma.

30 keywords...

hide…