Segmentation of Microscopic Bone Images

Characteristics of microscopic bone cross section images carry essential clues for defining the important features in the bone cross section such as harvesian canals, osteons, osteon fragments, lamellar bone, bony trabeculae, myxoid matrix and artifact for different age groups and also for age related developments & diseases. The traditional approaches of bone microscopic image analysis rely primarily on manual processes with very limited number of bone samples which is very difficult to get reliable and consistent conclusions. A new method of hybrid technique of image segmentation which uses microscopic images for processing is proposed. This hybrid segmentation technique automates the bone image analysis process and is able to produce reliable results based on qualitative measurements of the features extracted from the microscopic bone images. The study of correlation of bone structural features and age related developments & diseases become feasible from large databases of bone images.