Finite element analysis for prediction of bone strength

Zysset, Philippe K.; Dall'Ara, Enrico; Varga, Peter; Pahr, Dieter H. (2013). Finite element analysis for prediction of bone strength. BoneKEy Reports, 2, 386 (2013). Nature Publishing Group 10.1038/bonekey.2013.120

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Finite element analysis for prediction of bone strength

Philippe K Zysset,
Enrico Dall'Ara,
Peter Varga
& Dieter H Pahr

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BoneKEy Reports
(2013)
2,
Article number:
386
(2013)
doi:10.1038/bonekey.2013.120

Received
03 January 2013
Accepted
25 June 2013
Published online
07 August 2013

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Finite element (FE) analysis has been applied for the past 40 years to simulate the mechanical behavior of bone. Although several validation studies have been performed on specific anatomical sites and load cases, this study aims to review the predictability of human bone strength at the three major osteoporotic fracture sites quantified in recently completed in vitro studies at our former institute. Specifically, the performance of FE analysis based on clinical computer tomography (QCT) is compared with the ones of the current densitometric standards, bone mineral content, bone mineral density (BMD) and areal BMD (aBMD). Clinical fractures were produced in monotonic axial compression of the distal radii, vertebral sections and in side loading of the proximal femora. QCT-based FE models of the three bones were developed to simulate as closely as possible the boundary conditions of each experiment. For all sites, the FE methodology exhibited the lowest errors and the highest correlations in predicting the experimental bone strength. Likely due to the improved CT image resolution, the quality of the FE prediction in the peripheral skeleton using high-resolution peripheral CT was superior to that in the axial skeleton with whole-body QCT. Because of its projective and scalar nature, the performance of aBMD in predicting bone strength depended on loading mode and was significantly inferior to FE in axial compression of radial or vertebral sections but not significantly inferior to FE in side loading of the femur. Considering the cumulated evidence from the published validation studies, it is concluded that FE models provide the most reliable surrogates of bone strength at any of the three fracture sites.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Review Article)
Division/Institute:	04 Faculty of Medicine > Pre-clinic Human Medicine > Institute for Surgical Technology & Biomechanics ISTB [discontinued]
UniBE Contributor:	Zysset, Philippe
Subjects:	500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology 600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health 600 Technology > 620 Engineering
ISSN:	2047-6396
Publisher:	Nature Publishing Group
Language:	English
Submitter:	Philippe Zysset
Date Deposited:	02 May 2014 11:01
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 14:28
Publisher DOI:	10.1038/bonekey.2013.120
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/42586