Bone compressive strength: the influence of density and strain rate
Science. September 10, 1976;194(4270):1174-1176
Affiliations
1Department of Orthopaedics, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle 98195
2Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia 19174
Abstract
The compressive strength of bone is proportional to the square of the apparent density and to the strain rate raised to the 0.06 power. This relationship is applicable to trabecular and compact bone, and provides clinical guidelines for predicting bone strength on the basis of x-ray and densitometric examination.