Predicting changes in mechanical properties of trabecular bone by adaptive remodeling

Abstract

Because changes in the mechanical properties of bone are closely related to trabecular bone remodeling, methods that consider the temporal morphological changes induced by adaptive remodeling of trabecular bone are needed to estimate long-term fracture risk and bone quality in osteoporosis. We simulated bone remodeling using simplified and pig trabecular bone models and estimated the morphology of healthy and osteoporotic cases. We then displayed the fracture risk of the remodeled models based on a cumulative histogram from high stress. The histogram showed more elements had higher stresses in the osteoporosis model, indicating that the osteoporosis model had a greater risk.

Keywords:

• Trabecular bone
• bone remodeling
• osteoporosis
• fracture risk
• finite element analysis
• bone quality

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Prof. Taiji Adachi (Kyoto University, Japan) for helpful support for remodeling simulation.