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Radiographic trabecular 2D and 3D parameters of proximal femoral bone cores correlate with each other and with yield stress

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Abstract

Summary

Radiographic images of bone cores taken from cadaver proximal femora provided two-dimensional parameters of projected trabecular patterns that correlated highly with conceptually equivalent three-dimensional parameters in the same cores. Measurements also highly correlated with yield stress, suggesting that both parameters have similar biomechanical qualities.

Introduction

We compared morphometric measurements of trabecular patterns in two-dimensional (2D) projection radiographic images of cores from cadaver proximal femoral bones with conceptually equivalent measurements from three-dimensional microcomputed tomography (3D µCT) images.

Methods

Seven cadaver proximal femora provided 47 excised cores from seven regions. Digitized radiographs of those cores were processed with software that extracts trabecular patterns. Measurements of their distribution, geometry, and connectivity were compared with 3D parameters of similar definition derived from µCT of those cores. The relationship between 2D and 3D measurements and yield stress was also examined.

Results

2D measurements strongly correlated with conceptually equivalent measurements obtained using 3D µCT. In all cases, the correlation coefficients were high, ranging from r = 0.84 (p < 0.001) to r = 0.93 (p < 0.001). The correlation coefficients between 2D and 3D measurements and yield stress of the cores were also high (r = 0.60 and 0.82, p < 0.001, respectively).

Conclusions

These findings provide correlative and biomechanical evidence supporting the qualitative similarity of 2D microstructural parameters extracted from plain proximal femoral core X-ray images to conceptually equivalent 3D microstructural measurements of those same cores.

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Conflicts of interest

Dr. Steines, Dr. Arnaud, Mr. Liew, and Dr. Vargas-Voracek are employees of Imaging Therapeutics Inc. and own stock in the company. Dr. Lang and Dr. Hess are members of the board of directors of Imaging Therapeutics Inc. and own stock in the company. All other authors have no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Imaging Therapeutics Inc., 400 Seaport Court, Suite 250, Redwood City, CA, 94063, USA

    D. Steines, S.-W. Liew, C. Arnaud, R. Vargas-Voracek & P. Hess

  2. Orthopedic Biomechanics Laboratory, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    A. Nazarian & B. Snyder

  3. Institute for Biomechanics, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    R. Müller

  4. ConforMIS Inc., Burlington, MA, USA

    P. Lang

Authors
  1. D. Steines
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  2. S.-W. Liew
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  3. C. Arnaud
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  4. R. Vargas-Voracek
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  5. A. Nazarian
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  6. R. Müller
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  7. B. Snyder
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  8. P. Hess
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  9. P. Lang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. Arnaud.

Additional information

Phase 1 NIH SBIR 1 R43 AR049655

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Steines, D., Liew, SW., Arnaud, C. et al. Radiographic trabecular 2D and 3D parameters of proximal femoral bone cores correlate with each other and with yield stress. Osteoporos Int 20, 1929–1938 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00198-009-0908-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00198-009-0908-z

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