Figure 5.

Determining bone ultrastructure organization with 3D scanning small-angle X-ray scattering (3D sSAXS). (a) Trabecular bone volume, which includes the trabeculae of interest, imaged with micro-computed tomography. (b) Thin section cut out of the volume in (a). The region of interest (rectangle) is scanned with sSAXS for different rotation angles. (c) Local 3D orientation for every bone sub-volume, based on the analysis of the diffraction patterns of each sub-volume for the different rotation angles. The level of the degree of orientation (DO) is denoted by the length of the vector, as well as by the colour of the colourmap (in the online version). (d) Many consecutive thin sections stacked together. In each section, the region of interest contained in the red rectangle is scanned. (e) The trabecular structure under investigation. (f) Reconstruction of the 3D orientation map for each sub-volume of the trabecula. The level of the DO can be interpreted by the length of the vector and the colourmap in (c) (in the online version). (Images from [145] with kind permission of Elsevier.) (Online version in colour.)