BIOMECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF HUMAN OS CALCANEI - RELATIONSHIPS WITH BONE-DENSITY AND FRACTAL EVALUATION OF BONE MICROARCHITECTURE

The relationship between bone strength and bone mass is well establish ed. The link between trabecular microarchitecture and biomechanical pr operties has been less extensively explored. To address this question, we have tested the mechanical behaviour of calcaneus bone samples and investigated the correlations between mechanical properties on the on e hand, bone density and fractal analysis of microarchitecture on the other hand. Mechanical properties of 43 human os calcanei were determi ned by uniaxial compression testing of samples from tuber calcanei. As h density, bulk density and dual energy X-ray absorptiometry of the sa mples were measured. Fractal analysis of the trabecular bone on calcan eus radiographs was performed by two estimators derived from the fract ional Brownian motion model. The mechanical properties of human os cal cis were found to correlate with age and density measurements. Fractal parameters derived from the bone texture analysis showed weaker but s ignificant correlations with bone strength. Fractal analysis of textur e could account in part for the variations of bone strength, but in th is study cannot explain better than density the mechanical properties of trabecular bone. Nevertheless, it provides a non-invasive means of assessing molecular bone microarchitecture. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.