A QUANTITATIVE TECHNIQUE FOR COMPARING SYNTHETIC POROUS HYDROXYAPATITE STRUCTURES AND CANCELLOUS BONE

There are many different materials currently available for cancellous bo ne grafting. There is however, very little information relating the morphology of these materials to cancellous bone. Work was undertaken to develop a quantitative method for comparing synthetic hydroxyapati te bone structures with cancel lo us bone. The bases for com pa risen were mean plate thickness, mean plate distance, mineral area fraction, mineral volume fraction and plate orientation coupled with mechanical tests. The aim of this work was to develop a protocol for assessing w hether these critical parameters which influence the success of bone i mplants were achieved in the synthetic materials. The methodology is s uccessful in providing quantitative information about the mineral area fraction, the mean plate distance or pore size and the intercept freq uency as a function of angle. Combining these three provides a quantit ative measure of how much mineral there is and how it is distributed a nd oriented. The mechanical tests yield strengths and moduli values ba sed on apparent density. The results of the mechanical tests can also be plotted as functions of the more discrete structural features such as those quantified in the image analysis to allow for even more equit able and systematic comparisons of different porous materials.