A non-invasive pre-test method for determining human cadaver skeletal quality without affecting a cadaver's usability in an experimental program is presented in conjunction with the standard post-test "rib bending" skeletal analysis.

Osteoporosis (porous bone) is detectable, in varying degrees, to a trained orthopedist or radiologist in the lumbar spine or pelvic girdle region of a given subject. Such expertise is not always available to the researcher at the time cadaver selection must be made. Thus, a rapid and accurate engineering analysis of skeletal quality has been developed wherein the technique for determining the percent cortical area (PCA) of a long bone (the second metacarpal), delineated according to age and sex, is extrapolated to determine the PCA using a pre-selection radiograph of the mid shaft view of a commonly x-rayed long bone (femur).

These femur PCA's are presented and discussed for approximately twenty cadaveric subjects utilized in both car crash and pedestrian impact tests.

A further pre-test skeletal quality determination technique in which a section of an easily excisable long bone is removed (mid-shaft radius) and the PCA accurutely measured is presented for comparison of results.