ASSESSMENT OF CANCELLOUS BONE-STRUCTURE - COMPARISON OF STRUT ANALYSIS, TRABECULAR BONE PATTERN FACTOR, AND MARROW SPACE STAR VOLUME

Cancellous bone architecture is an important determinant of bone stren gth, Recently, several approaches to the assessment of bone structure in histological sections have been described; however, no comparative studies of these different methods have been reported, We have develop ed computerized methods for the simultaneous assessment of several ind ices of bone structure, including trabecular bone pattern factor, marr ow space star volume, node-to-terminus ratio, trabecular number, and t rabecular separation, The relationships between these variables has be en examined in iliac crest cancellous bone obtained from 41 healthy su bjects, 17 male and 24 female, aged 20-80 years (mean 47.9 years), All structural indices assessed showed significant correlations with canc ellous bone area (p < 0.0001), Values for trabecular bone pattern fact or and marrow space volume were highly correlated (r = 0.789; p < 0.00 01), A comparison of indices obtained by strut analysis with trabecula r bone pattern factor and marrow space star volume also revealed signi ficant relationships, especially for the terminus-to-terminus strut le ngth (r = 0.704 and r = 0.634, respectively; p < 0.0001) and node to t erminus ratio (r = -0.947 and r = -0.788, respectively; p < 0.0001), T he node-to-terminus ratio and trabecular bone pattern factor showed si gnificant relationships with age which were independent of sex, cancel lous bone area and trabecular width (p < 0.01 and p < 0.005, respectiv ely), Our results demonstrate strong correlations between the differen t two-dimensional indices of bone structure in cancellous bone from he althy subjects, Trabecular penetration is likely to be an important de terminant of all these variables, which may therefore reflect connecti vity; however, direct comparison of these methods with three-dimension al techniques is required to establish their true relationship to bone structure.