TO:  Members of the Yale Core Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders (YCCMD)

FROM: Karl L. Insogna, M.D.

I am pleased to tell you that the YCCMD microCT facility is now accepting specimens for analysis.  The YCCMD facility was established through a shared instrument grant from NIH.  Using these funds we were able to purchase a state-of-the-art ScanCo microCT 35 machine, which is currently housed in TAC S-138.  I am acting as the director of the facility, and Dr. Joshua Van Houten is the associate director.  The facility is managed by Dr. Ben-hua Sun in Endocrinology. 

Our machine has extremely high resolution with the capacity to resolve structures down to 3.5 microns.  As you can see from the images below, we have the ability to provide fine structural images at the level of individual trabeculae. 

All specimens should be submitted using the fillable PDF form. Our site is under construction, please contact Irene Sherman for a YCCMD MicroCT Submission Form.
This form must accompany all samples. 

Samples can be dropped off with Dr. Ben-hua Sun, who can be found in TAC S-130. 
The direct line to his office is 5-2631.

Samples can be shipped to:

Benhua Sun, MD
Internal Medicine Endocrinology
One Gilbert Street, Room TAC S-130
New Haven, CT 06519
Telephone: 203-785-2631

Both Dr. Van Houten and I will be available on a consultative basis to help interpret your data if need be.  In order to maintain this facility and cover the expense of the service contract, we will be initially be charging $50/bone for these analyses.  We can analyze a variety of soft and hard tissues with our instrument, including rat and mouse bones, and segments of larger bones if need be, since we have a variety of sized holders that can be placed in the machine.  Since the majority of you, we imagine, will be using the machine for either rat or mouse bones, we devised the template reports to reflect that anticipating that the majority of you will be analyzing either vertebral bones or femurs.  In the femur we will analyze distal femur for trabecular and cortical bone.  Our general report will include images at 7 microns that include a cross section of the whole bone to allow investigators to get some sense of the size and shape of their bones and the relative amount of cortex and trabecular bone present.  An abstracted summary of the critical parameters, both cortical and trabecular, are included in the report as well as a graphic summary of those changes that were most significantly different.  The third tab on the report form will include all of the parameters acquired by the instrument.

It is vitally important that appropriate charging instructions be included with the samples.  We will not be able to process samples without this information.

We will be relying on you for input and guidance as this new service rolls out, and we would welcome your comments and feedback.