Non-invasive detection and monitoring of bone strength in osteoporosis

骨质疏松症是一种骨密度降低导致骨折风险增加的疾病，最常见的是髋部、脊柱和手腕。在我们老龄化的加拿大人口中，骨质疏松症的患病率正在迅速增加，这对我们的医疗保健系统来说是一个巨大的负担。这项研究开发了一种新的诊断成像技术来监测骨质疏松症，通过结合最近发展的三维成像技术(高分辨率外围定量计算机断层扫描；HR-pQCT)和有限元(FE)方法来估计骨强度。有限元方法是工程设计和试验中常用的一种数值模拟技术，是估算复杂材料强度的理想方法。结合起来，这一新的工具将允许对受试者特定的骨强度进行非侵入性评估，这将代表着与基于密度测量的临床评估方法的重大转变。它将提供第一个能够基于临床图像数据测量患者骨强度的工具。除了临床适用性，这种结合成像和有限元建模的方法将使新的研究能够研究骨产量和/或骨折、骨和骨髓相之间的相互作用(固液相互作用)以及营养和/或药物传输。拟议的工作将集中于三个目标：(1)开发一种快速、高效的线性有限元建模方法，以便可以对骨微结构的HR-pQCT测量进行建模，以确定骨强度，并且比使用广泛可用的廉价计算硬件的当前方法快得多；(2)研究将构成材料特性纳入

Osteoporosis is a disease of decreased bone density resulting in an increased risk of fracture, most often in the hip, spine and wrist. In our aging Canadian population, the prevalence of osteoporosis is rapidly increasing, and represents a significant burden on our health care system. This research develops a new diagnostic imaging technique for monitoring osteoporosis by combining a recently developed three-dimensional imaging technology (high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography; HR-pQCT) with the finite element (FE) method to estimate bone strength. The FE method is a numerical simulation technique commonly used in engineering design and testing, and is ideal for estimated the strength of complex materials. Combined, this novel tool will allow non-invasive assessment of subject-specific bone strength, and this would represent a significant shift from the clinical assessment approach that is based on density measurements. It will provide the first tool to be able to measure a patients' bone strength based on clinical image data. In addition to clinical applicability, this combined imaging and FE modeling approach would enable new research to study how bone yields and/or fractures, the interaction between bone and marrow phases (solid-fluid interaction) and nutrient and/or drug transport. The proposed work will focus on three objectives: (1) To develop a fast, efficient linear FE modeling approach so that HR-pQCT measurements of bone microarchitecture can be modeled to determine bone strength, and to do so considerably faster than current methods using widely available inexpensive computing hardware; (2) To investigate incorporation of constitutive material properties for