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Influence of vertical trabeculae on the compressive strength of the human vertebra
Author(s) -
Fields Aaron J,
Lee Gideon L,
Liu X Sherry,
Jekir Michael G,
Guo X Edward,
Keaveny Tony M
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of bone and mineral research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.882
H-Index - 241
eISSN - 1523-4681
pISSN - 0884-0431
DOI - 10.1002/jbmr.207
Subject(s) - compression (physics) , vertebra , anatomy , compressive strength , volume fraction , materials science , thoracic vertebrae , x ray microtomography , rachis , biomedical engineering , medicine , composite material , lumbar vertebrae , radiology , lumbar
Vertebral strength, a key etiologic factor of osteoporotic fracture, may be affected by the relative amount of vertically oriented trabeculae. To better understand this issue, we performed experimental compression testing, high‐resolution micro–computed tomography (µCT), and micro–finite‐element analysis on 16 elderly human thoracic ninth (T 9 ) whole vertebral bodies (ages 77.5 ± 10.1 years). Individual trabeculae segmentation of the µCT images was used to classify the trabeculae by their orientation. We found that the bone volume fraction (BV/TV) of just the vertical trabeculae accounted for substantially more of the observed variation in measured vertebral strength than did the bone volume fraction of all trabeculae ( r 2 = 0.83 versus 0.59, p < .005). The bone volume fraction of the oblique or horizontal trabeculae was not associated with vertebral strength. Finite‐element analysis indicated that removal of the cortical shell did not appreciably alter these trends; it also revealed that the major load paths occur through parallel columns of vertically oriented bone. Taken together, these findings suggest that variation in vertebral strength across individuals is due primarily to variations in the bone volume fraction of vertical trabeculae. The vertical tissue fraction, a new bone quality parameter that we introduced to reflect these findings, was both a significant predictor of vertebral strength alone ( r 2 = 0.81) and after accounting for variations in total bone volume fraction in multiple regression (total R 2 = 0.93). We conclude that the vertical tissue fraction is a potentially powerful microarchitectural determinant of vertebral strength. © 2011 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.