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Abstract
We propose an experimental technique for the estimation of quality parameters of post-mortem human bone samples with signs of osteoporosis. Since we were interested in characterizing bone microstructure by evaluating porosity, trabecular thickness, and space, we obtained reference values of those parameters for some of our samples through micro-computerized tomography (micro-CT). Nevertheless, as such technology is not widely available, here we used a 2D imaging approximation of those quality parameters. We based our estimation on simple digital microscopy and calibrated to ensure a percentage of similarity higher than 95% in comparison to those values achieved through micro-CT. Additionally, we subjected our samples to mechanical testing to obtain a complete characterization of our samples and to provide a preliminary assessment of the possible relationship between clinical tests of bone mineral density (BMD) and bone quality parameters. Our results show that BMD may have very low specificity in the assessment of the authentic microstructure of bone, then a broader analysis of quality parameters is required to enhance the reliability of future osteoporosis diagnosis technologies.
Highlights
Bones are living structures with high stiffness, but capable of transmitting compression, bending, and torsion loads
Even though the estimation of quality parameters of our human bone samples was based on a 2D imaging technique, the calibration through the gold-reference measurements in both bone an a sample of porous material allowed to achieve a low bias in the estimation
Due to osteoporosis, all samples belong to the right-tail of such curve in which the behavior can be well approximated as a linear function that models a rapid decay of the specific surface of the bone as porosity increases
Summary
Bones are living structures with high stiffness, but capable of transmitting compression, bending, and torsion loads. They achieve all this with minimum weight and high efficiency [1]. There are two forms of bone tissue: compact (cortical) and spongy (trabecular). Cortical bone is a dense solid material formed by microscopic canals, and it accounts for 80% of the skeleton. The remaining 20% corresponds to the trabecular bone, which has a complex microstructure comprised of a group of rods (trabeculae) forming a disorganized mesh. The principal characteristic of the trabecular bone is its porosity, which depends on pore size. Bone strength depends on its quantity and quality [2,3,4]
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