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sketchfab

Human specimens from the second lumbar vertebra were collected as part of the European Union BIOMED I study 'Assessment of Bone Quality in Osteoporosis'. Our primary objective was to investigate density fluctuations in calcified tissues through quantitative backscattered electron imaging (BSE-SEM), which required para-sagittal bone slices to be embedded in PMMA, then block surfaces micro-milled and re-polished [Boyde & Jones. Clin Rheumatol 14: 598, 1995]. Samples were examined using high-contrast X-ray microtomography with a resolution of 30μm, which took 72 hours to scan on the QMUL MuCat3 scanner [Mills & Davis], resulting in precise correlation between BSE-SEM and XMT. XMT datasets were visualized and made more understandable by rendering them in Drishti. We chose several female samples for 3D printing, including the youngest, post-menopausal, oldest, anterior and central compression fractures, and anterior collapse [Cresswell-Boyes, Mills, Davis, Boyde. EORS, Galway, Sep 25-28, 2018]. To upload datasets on SketchFab, we converted them into 3D meshes with reduced resolution using Meshmixer.