Anisotropy and inhomogeneity of the trabecular structure can describe the mechanical strength of osteoarthritic cancellous bone

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Tassani, Simone^1,2; Öhman, Caroline^1,2; Baleani, Massimiliano¹; Baruffaldi, Fabio¹; Viceconti, Marco¹

Anisotropy and inhomogeneity of the trabecular structure can describe the mechanical strength of osteoarthritic cancellous bone

J Biomech. April 19, 2010;43(6):1160-1166

Affiliations

¹Laboratorio di Tecnologia Medica, Istituti Ortopedici Rizzoli, Via di Barbiano, 1/10, 40136, Bologna, Italy

²Engineering Faculty, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Abstract and keywords

Osteoarthritic cancellous bone was studied to investigate the development of this pathology, and the functional changes it induces in the bone. In order to predict how the morphological alterations of the tissue induced by the pathology can change the mechanical properties of the structure, two different strategies have been used in the literature: (1) emphasising the influence of structural anisotropy; (2) stressing the highly inhomogeneous characteristics of cancellous bone. The aim of the present study was to verify the theory that mechanical strength of osteoarthritic cancellous bone depends both on tissue anisotropy and inhomogeneity.

Twenty-five specimens were extracted from osteoarthritic femoral heads, along selected directions, and analysed by means of a microtomograph. The same specimens were mechanically tested in compression to determine the mechanical strength. The most representative structural parameters, confirmed by a stepwise analysis, were used to define four models to describe the measured mechanical strength. The models were applied neglecting (global analysis) or considering (local analysis) tissue inhomogeneities to verify whether the correlation with ultimate stress could be improved.

The coefficient of determination increased from 0.53, considering only bone volume fraction, up to 0.88, combining it with off-axis angle and normalised eigenvalue. A further improvement was found performing a local analysis (R²=0.90), which corresponded to a decrease of 17% in the residual error.

The proposed approach of considering both tissue anisotropy and inhomogeneity improved the accuracy in predicting the mechanical behaviour of cancellous bone tissue and should be suitable for more general loading conditions.

Keywords: Cancellous bone; Trabecular structure; Anisotropy; Inhomogeneity; Mechanical behaviour; Strength prediction
Links

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2009.11.034

PubMed: 20056226

WoS: 000277471200021

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2012	Tassani S, Matsopoulos GK, Baruffaldi F. 3D identification of trabecular bone fracture zone using an automatic image registration scheme: a validation study. J Biomech. July 26, 2012;45(11):2035-2040.
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