ANALYSIS OF TRABECULAE IN FEMORAL-HEAD BY IMAGE-PROCESSING AND ESTIMATION OF BONE STRENGTH

The aim of this study is the development of an image processing system for estimation of trabecular strength and to investigate the relation ship between the loads and the trabeculae in the femoral head. The tra becular system is a useful source of information concerning the mechan ical environment of bones which is important in orthopedic treatment. In this paper, the distribution of principal stress obtained by the fi nite-element model based on Pauwels' theory is compared with that of t rabecular strength estimated using the image processing technique. It is found that the result of the finite-element method is similar,to th e configuration of trabeculae in both magnitude and direction. This re sult shows that unknown loads applied to bone may be estimated using t he inverse finite-element method.