A comparison of rat femoral, sternebral and lumbar vertebral bone marrow fat content by subjective assessment and image analysis of histological sections.

A subjective assessment of the amount of fat within the available marrow space was made from histological sections of the femur, sternebrae and lumbar vertebrae in rats. The sternebrae and vertebrae showed considerably less variability than the femur. Comparison between subjective assessment and image analysis of femoral bone marrow fat showed that there is no great advantage to be gained from using the latter technique. It was concluded that evaluation of sternebral and vertebral bone marrow results in a more accurate assessment of fat content.