Comparison between microcomputed tomography and cone-beam computed tomography radiologic bone to assess atrophic posterior maxilla density and microarchitecture.

Purpose The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between bone density obtained by cone-beam computed tomography ( CBCT) and morphometric parameters of bone analyzed by microcomputed tomography (μ- CT). Material and methods An overall of 32 subjects ≤8 mm of bone height were included in the study. One site per patient was randomly selected to obtain bone core. Totally, 27 biopsies were available for μ- CT analysis. In addition, CBCT was taken after positioning a previously fabricated acrylic resin template with a 2-mm-diameter metal rod at the randomly selected implant site to study radiographic bone density ( RBD). The relationship between μ- CT and CBCT quantitative variable and RBD was analyzed using Spearman correlation. Results Positive correlations between BV/ TV ( r = 0.769, P < 0.001), BS/ TV ( r = 0.563, P = 0.002), Tb. Th ( r = 0.491, P = 0.009), Tb. N ( r = 0.518, P = 0.005) and v BMD ( r = 0.699, P < 0.001) with RBD were identified. On the contrary, BS/ BV ( r = −0.509, P = 0.006), Tb. Sp ( r = −0.539, P = 0.003) and Tb. Pf ( r = −0.636, P < 0.001) were negatively correlated with RBD. Moreover, SMI ( r = −0.380, P = 0.050) and DA (−0.245, P = 0.217) were negatively correlated but not statistically significant. Conclusion This study demonstrated the correlation between radiographic bone density ( RBD) and bone density assessed by μ- CT. Therefore, our data supported the use of CBCT as pre-operative tool for implant treatment planning because it is shown to be reliable to assess atrophic posterior maxilla density and microarchitecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]