Finite element analysis of osteoporosis models based on synchrotron radiation

Abstract

A: With growing pressure of social aging, China has to face the increasing population of osteoporosis patients as well as the whole world. Recently synchrotron radiation has become an essential tool for biomedical exploration with advantage of high resolution and high stability.In order to study characteristic changes in different stages of primary osteoporosis, this research focused on the different periods of osteoporosis of rats based on synchrotron radiation. Both bone histomorphometry analysis and finite element analysis were then carried on according to the reconstructed three dimensional models. Finally, the changes of bone tissue in different periods were compared quantitatively.Histomorphometry analysis showed that the structure of the trabecular in osteoporosis degraded as the bone volume decreased. For femurs, the bone volume fraction (Bone volume/ Total volume, BV/TV) decreased from 69% to 43%. That led to the increase of the thickness of trabecular separation (from 45.05µm to 97.09µm) and the reduction of the number of trabecular (from 7.99 mm-1 to 5.97mm-1). Simulation of various mechanical tests with finite element analysis (FEA) indicated that, with the exacerbation of osteoporosis, the bones' ability of resistance to compression, bending and torsion gradually became weaker. The compression stiffness of femurs decreased from 1770.96 Fµm −1 to 697.41 Fµm −1 , the bending and torsion stiffness were from 1390.80 Fµm −1 to 566.11 Fµm −1 and from 2957.28N.m/ • to 691.31 N.m/ • respectively, indicated the decrease of bone strength, and it matched the histomorphometry analysis.This study suggested that FEA and synchrotron radiation were excellent methods for analysing bone strength conbined with histomorphometry analysis. K: Analysis and statistical methods; Simulation methods and programs; Computerized Tomography (CT) and Computed Radiography (CR); Image reconstruction in medical imaging 1Corresponding author.