Relationship between human rib mechanical properties and cortical bone density measured by high-resolution quantitative computed tomography

Abstract

Thoracic injuries are among the most serious injuries in vehicle crash accidents. To improve the safety of vehicle occupants, it is essential to have a better knowledge on biomechanical responses of human rib cage (Vezin and Berthet 2009). A better knowledge of the bone mechanical properties should be of great interest to take into account the inter-individual differences in the population. For such purpose, a non-invasive technique is requested. Quantitative computed tomography (QCT) is a clinical modality that can be used to measure bone density. A literature review by Helgason et al. (2008) demonstrated that bone density (measured by QCT) was a good predictor of bone mechanical properties. Kopperdahl et al. (2002) and Duchemin et al. (2008) showed the relationships between bone density assessed by QCT and mechanical properties on vertebral cancellous bone and femoral cortical bone respectively. In this context, the question is: do such relationships exist on human ribs? No study has demonstrated such relationships on this anatomical site. Thus, the goal of this study is to assess the relationship between human rib mechanical properties and the density.