Image Processing
Eight cadaveric lumbar spine segments (T12-sacrum) were cleaned of muscle and loose connective tissue, before being CT scanned in a 64-slice machine (Somatom, Siemens, Munich, Germany) with a slice thickness of 0.6mm. The 3D image stacks were then imported to Simpleware ScanIP, where a custom window width and level, as well as a curvature anisotropic diffusion noise filter were applied. Interactive thresholding and floodfill tools generated a mask of the bony anatomy, which was then segmented into individual vertebrae and manually edited to deal with connectivity across the facet joint. Morphological closing filters were applied, before smoothing was carried out, and a model generated in STL format for export to MATLAB®.