New imaging technique reveals hidden blood vessels in ear bone
Researchers have developed a method to map tiny channels in the mastoid bone that supply blood to the inner ear—structures previously invisible to standard imaging. The advancement could improve surgical planning for ear procedures and inform device design for hearing implants and inner ear treatments.
Originaltitel: Enhancement of micro-channels within the human mastoid bone based on local structure tensor analysis
<p>Numerous micro-channels have recently been discovered in the human temporal bone by x-ray micro-CT-scanning. After a preliminary study suggesting that these micro-channels form a separate blood supply for the mucosa of the mastoid air cells, a structural analysis of the micro-channels using a local structure tensor was carried out. Despite the high-resolution of the micro-CT scan, presence of noise within the air cells along with missing information in some micro-channels suggested the need of image enhancement. This paper proposes an adaptive enhancement of the micro-channels based on a local structure analysis while minimizing the impact of noise on the overall data. Comparison with an anisotropic diffusion PDE based scheme was also performed.</p>