Peeling the Otolith of Fish: Optimal Parameterization for Micro-CT Scanning

In this paper, we aim to provide optimal parameters for micro-computed tomography scans of fish otoliths. We tested fifteen different combinations to sagittae. The images were scaled to Hounsfield units, and segmented in two distinct volumes-of-interest (external and internal). The strategy we appli...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in Marine Science 2019-11, Vol.6
Main Authors: Vasconcelos-Filho, Jonas E., Thomsen, Felix S. L., Stosic, Borko, Antonino, Antonio C. D., Duarte, Daniel A., Heck, Richard J., Lessa, Rosangela P. T., Santana, Francisco M., Ferreira, Beatrice P., Duarte-Neto, Paulo J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
3D otoliths
Age
Aluminium
Aluminum
Computed tomography
Densitometry
Density
Distribution
Ears & hearing
eco-densitometry
Fish
fishery biology
Fishing
Growth rings
Hounsfield units
Image processing
Meshlab
Nuclear energy
Otoliths
Parameterization
Parameters
radiodensity
Segmentation
Signal-to-noise ratio
Soil sciences
Tomography
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Summary:In this paper, we aim to provide optimal parameters for micro-computed tomography scans of fish otoliths. We tested fifteen different combinations to sagittae. The images were scaled to Hounsfield units, and segmented in two distinct volumes-of-interest (external and internal). The strategy we applied, for identifying optimum scan settings for otoliths, included analyses of the sinogram, the distribution of the Hounsfield units and the signal-to-noise ratio. Based on these tests, the optimum sets of parameters for the acquisition of tomographic images of sagittal otoilths were 80 kV, 220 microA and 0.5 mm aluminum filter.The method allowed 3D shape analysis, internal and external density distribution, layer-by-layer density segmentation, and a potential objective method to count growth rings in otoliths. It was possible to compare mean densities between species, and we observed a significant difference among them. In addition, there are ontogenic changes, which could be increasing or decreasing the density. In this study, we applied tomography for several otolith analysis, that could be of great interest for future studies in diverse areas that use otoliths as the basic structure of analysis, or represents a new research line called eco-densitometry of otoliths, where tomography could be applied to explore the density within an ecological perspective.
ISSN:2296-7745
2296-7745
DOI:10.3389/fmars.2019.00728