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. 2003 Feb 10;4(2):250–263. doi: 10.1007/s10162-002-3030-x

Three-Dimensional Modelling of the Middle-Ear Ossicular Chain Using a Commercial High-Resolution X-Ray CT Scanner

W F Decraemer 1,✉, J J J Dirckx 1, W R J Funnell 2
PMCID: PMC3202718  PMID: 12943376

Abstract

The quantitative measurement of the three-dimensional (3-D) anatomy of the ear is of great importance in the making of teaching models and the design of mathematical models of parts of the ear, and also for the interpretation and presentation of experimental results. This article describes how we used virtual sections from a commercial high-resolution X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanner to make realistic 3-D anatomical models for various applications in our middle-ear research. The important problem of registration of the 3-D model within the experimental reference frame is discussed. The commercial X-ray CT apparatus is also compared with X-ray CT using synchrotron radiation, with magnetic resonance microscopy, with fluorescence optical sectioning, and with physical (histological) serial sections.

Keywords: three-dimensional, middle-ear, models, X-ray, computer, tomography

Full Text

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank H.M. Ladak (The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada) for introducing us to the Iterative Closest Point procedure and for providing us with his Matlab (MathWorks) code implementing the method. We are also indebted to M.M. and O.W. Henson (The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA) who provided us with MRM data for human, cat, bat, and gerbil temporal bones; and to A.H. Voie (University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA) who provided us with OPFOS data for the guinea pig. Last but not least, we are very grateful to S.M. Khanna (Columbia University, New York, NY, USA), with whom were performed all of the middle-ear vibration measurements mentioned in this article. This work was supported by the Emil Capita Fund, NOSH, the Fund for Scientific Research (Flanders, Belgium), the Research Funds of the University of Antwerp (RUCA), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada).

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