Effect of microcomputed tomography voxel size on the finite element model accuracy for human cancellous bone

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Yeni, Yener N.¹; Christopherson, Gregory T.¹; Dong, X. Neil¹; Kim, Do-Gyoon¹; Fyhrie, David P.¹

Effect of microcomputed tomography voxel size on the finite element model accuracy for human cancellous bone

J Biomech Eng. February 2005;127(1):1-8

©2005 ASME

Affiliations

¹Bone and Joint Center, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI
Abstract and keywords

The level of structural detail that can be acquired and incorporated in a finite element (FE) analysis might greatly influence the results of microcomputed tomography (μCT)-based FE simulations, especially when relatively large bones, such as whole vertebrae, are of concern. We evaluated the effect of scanning and reconstruction voxel size on the μCT-based FE analyses of human cancellous tissue samples for fixed- and free-end boundary conditions using different combinations of scan/reconstruction voxel size. We found that the bone volume fraction (BV/TV) did not differ considerably between images scanned at 21 and 50 μm and reconstructed at 21, 50, or 110 μm (−0.5% to 7.8% change from the 21/21 μm case). For the images scanned and reconstructed at 110 μm, however, there was a large increase in BV/TV compared to the 21/21 μm case (58.7%). Fixed-end boundary conditions resulted in 1.8% [coefficient of variation (COV)] to 14.6% (E) difference from the free-end case. Dependence of model output parameters on scanning and reconstruction voxel size was similar between free- and fixed-end simulations. Up to 26%, 30%, 17.8%, and 32.3% difference in modulus (E), and average (VMExp), standard deviation (VMSD) and coefficient of variation (COV) of von Mises stresses, respectively, was observed between the 21/21 μm case and other scan/reconstruction combinations within the same (free or fixed) simulation group. Observed differences were largely attributable to scanning resolution, although reconstruction resolution also contributed significantly at the largest voxel sizes. All 21/21 μm results (taken as the gold standard) could be predicted from the 21/50 (r_adj²=0.91−0.99;p<0.001), 21/110 (r_adj²=0.58−0.99;p<0.02) and 50/50 results (r_adj²=0.61−0.97;p<0.02). While BV/TV, VMSD, and VMExp/σz from the 21/21 could be predicted by those from the 50/110 (r_adj²=0.63−0.93;p<0.02) and 110/110 (r_adj²=0.41−0.77;p<0.05) simulations as well, prediction of E, VMExp, and COV became marginally significant (0.04
Keywords: Microcomputed Tomography; Finite Element Method; Voxel Size; Element Size; Boundary Conditions; Accuracy; Trabecular Bone
Links

DOI: 10.1115/1.1835346

PubMed: 15868782

WoS: 000227971600001
History

Received: 2004-12-22

Revised: 2004-08-18

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2020	Rajapakse CS, Farid AR, Kargilis DC, Jones BC, Lee JS, Johncola AJ, Batzdorf AS, Shetye SS, Hast MW, Chang G. MRI-based assessment of proximal femur strength compared to mechanical testing. Bone. April 2020;133:115227.
2007	Ural A, Vashishth D. Effects of intracortical porosity on fracture toughness in aging human bone: a μCT-based cohesive finite element study. J Biomech Eng. October 2007;129(5):625-631.
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