Three-Dimensional (3D) Microarchitecture Correlations with 2D Projection Image Gray-Level Variations Assessed by Trabecular Bone Score Using High-Resolution Computed Tomographic Acquisitions: Effects of Resolution and Noise

Significant correlations were observed between TBSμCT and 3D microarchitecture parameters, regardless of the resolution. Correlations were detected that were strongly to intermediately positive for connectivity density (0.711 ≤ r2 ≤ 0.752) and trabecular number (0.584 ≤ r2 ≤ 0.648) and negative for trabecular space (−0.407 ≤ r2 ≤ −0.491), up to a pixel size of 1023 μm. In addition, TBSμCT values were strongly correlated between each other (0.77 ≤ r2 ≤ 0.96). Study results show that the correlations between TBSμCT at 93 μm and 3D microarchitecture parameters are weakly impacted by the degradation of image resolution and the presence of noise.