Osteolytica: An automated image analysis software package that rapidly measures XXXX in in vivo models with greater reproducibility compared to other commonly used methods.

@entity0 @entity3478 @entity5 @entity19 @entity1582 @entity79 @entity690
UNASSIGNED: Methods currently used to analyse @entity690 caused by @entity5 such as @entity1582 and metastatic @entity0 vary from basic 2-D X-ray analysis to 2-D images of micro-CT datasets analysed with non-specialised image software such as ImageJ. However, these methods have significant limitations. They do not capture 3-D data, they are time-consuming and they often suffer from inter-user variability. We therefore sought to develop a rapid and reproducible method to analyse 3-D @entity690 in @entity19 with @entity3478 . To this end, we have developed Osteolytica, an image analysis software method featuring an easy to use, step-by-step interface to measure @entity79 . Osteolytica utilises novel graphics card acceleration (parallel computing) and 3-D rendering to provide rapid reconstruction and analysis of @entity690 . To evaluate the use of Osteolytica we analysed tibial micro-CT datasets from @entity19 models of @entity3478 and compared the results to those obtained using a standard ImageJ analysis method. Firstly, to assess inter-user variability we deployed four independent researchers to analyse tibial datasets from the U266-NSG @entity19 model of @entity1582 . Using ImageJ, inter-user variability between the bones was substantial (  19.6%), in contrast to using Osteolytica, which demonstrated minimal variability (  0.5%). Secondly, tibial datasets from U266-bearing NSG @entity19 or BALB/c @entity19 injected with the metastatic @entity0 cell line 4T1 were compared to tibial datasets from aged and sex-matched @entity5 control @entity19 . Analyses by both Osteolytica and ImageJ showed significant @entity79 area in tumour-bearing @entity19 compared to control @entity19 . These results confirm that Osteolytica performs as well as the current 2-D ImageJ osteolytic lesion analysis method. However, Osteolytica is advantageous in that it analyses over the entirety of the bone volume (as opposed to selected 2-D images), it is a more rapid method and it has less user variability.
