RESEARCH ARTICLE
Relationship Between Mechanical Properties and Bone Mineral Density of Human Femoral Bone Retrieved from Patients with Osteoarthritis
Yvonne Haba, Tobias Lindner, Andreas Fritsche, Ann-Kristin Schiebenhöfer, Robert Souffrant, Daniel Kluess, Ralf Skripitz, Wolfram Mittelmeier, Rainer Bader*
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2012Volume: 6
First Page: 458
Last Page: 463
Publisher ID: TOORTHJ-6-458
DOI: 10.2174/1874325001206010458
Article History:
Received Date: 17/1/2012Revision Received Date: 21/7/2012
Acceptance Date: 25/7/2012
Electronic publication date: 19/10/2012
Collection year: 2012

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
The objective of this study was to analyse retrieved human femoral bone samples using three different test methods, to elucidate the relationship between bone mineral density and mechanical properties. Human femoral heads were retrieved from 22 donors undergoing primary total hip replacement due to hip osteoarthritis and stored for a maximum of 24 hours postoperatively at + 6 °C to 8 °C.
Analysis revealed an average structural modulus of 232±130 N/mm2 and ultimate compression strength of 6.1±3.3 N/mm2 with high standard deviations. Bone mineral densities of 385±133 mg/cm2 and 353±172 mg/cm3 were measured using thedual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and quantitative computed tomography (QCT), respectively. Ashing resulted in a bone mineral density of 323±97 mg/cm3. In particular, significant linear correlations were found between DXA and ashing with r = 0.89 (p < 0.01, n = 22) and between structural modulus and ashing with r = 0.76 (p < 0.01, n = 22).
Thus, we demonstrated a significant relationship between mechanical properties and bone density. The correlations found can help to determine the mechanical load capacity of individual patients undergoing surgical treatments by means of noninvasive bone density measurements.