Comparison of hr-pQCT & MRTA to DXA & QUS for the Ex-vivo Assessment of Bone Strength

• Main Author: Ally, Idrees Abdul Latif
• Other Authors: Cheung, Angela M.
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: bone strength; osteoporosis; bone quality; hr-pQCT; DXA; emu model; 0571
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/24527

There is a pressing need for better assessment of bone strength as current clinical tools do not directly measure bone mechanical properties, but offer only surrogate measures of bone strength. We conducted an ex-vivo study of emu bones to examine how two investigative devices, hr-pQCT and MRTA, compare to current clinical tools (DXA and QUS) in predicting true bone mechanical properties. We found that hr-pQCT parameters were able to assess bone strength as well as DXA and better than QUS, while MRTA was able to predict bone strength well in low-density but not high-density bones. Our results suggest that both hr-pQCT, which has the unique ability to specifically assess the various determinants of bone strength, and MRTA, which measures a bone mechanical property (stiffness), have great potential for use as clinical tools that can assess various components of bone strength not measured by current devices.