Jaramillo-Núñez A

Language: Spanish
References: 12
Page: 175-181
PDF size: 230.16 Kb.

ABSTRACT

Introduction. One way to monitor the efficacy of therapies in bone disease is by digitally subtracting two images, one taken before starting treatment and the other after completing it. This article describes a method based on a more practical photographic process, which does not require as much care in taking x-rays. The graphs illustrate what is happening with bone density, so that the evolution of the disease can be rapidly inferred.
Material and methods. The x-rays and mammograms analyzed were obtained from a patient with breast cancer and metastasis in the humeral head of the right shoulder. To show the efficacy of the method, the humeral head and the surgical neck were analyzed. The time interval between the first and second x-rays was one year and for the mammograms the difference was 6 months.
Discussion. To obtain the images used in the analysis no restrictions were imposed, and even so the results obtained are encouraging to use the technique in monitoring diseases, therapies, or drugs related to the bone system, in cases where the density of an organ changes as a function of time. The graphs clearly show when and where there is loss or gain of bone density. The method also solves the problem that the resulting difference may be a negative number, in which case flat surfaces are obtained indicating the need to invert the difference.
Conclusion. The technique is fairly robust, to the degree that it could be used to monitor bone diseases where there is simultaneous bone growth and degradation, as in cases where there is a combination of osteolytic and osteoblastic metastasis, and also where there are changes in tissue density, as in the breasts.

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