Response to “Clinical Evaluation of Bone Strength and Fracture Risk”

A novel method for bone fatigue monitoring and prediction

“…It should be noted that mechanical characterization of bone by vibration analysis is not a new idea. The Mechanical Response Tissue Analysis (MRTA) is a vibration analysis technique for measuring bending stiffness in the ulna and tibia that was developed at Stanford with support from NASA (Steele et al, 1988) over 30 years ago; however, the rapid adoption of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in the 1990s prevented the commercialization of MRTA at that time (Loucks et al, 2017). Recent reports (Stone et al, 2003 Nov, Wainwright et al, 2005 May) of poor performance of DXA in predicting fractures has led to a decline in confidence in DXA and in insurance coverage for the expense of the procedure.…”

“…Recent reports (Stone et al, 2003 Nov, Wainwright et al, 2005 May) of poor performance of DXA in predicting fractures has led to a decline in confidence in DXA and in insurance coverage for the expense of the procedure. A renewed interest in MRTA has resulted in improvements in the technology, now referred to as Cortical Bone Mechanics Technology (CBMT), which has demonstrated improved accuracy in measurement of bending stiffness when validated against quasistatic mechanical testing (QMT) (Loucks et al, 2017 Aug;, Arnold et al, 2014 Nov 7). This method uses the application of low frequency ( 40–1200 Hz) vibrations at midshaft (Arnold et al, 2014).…”