Plate-Rod Microstructural Modeling for Accurate and Fast Assessment of Bone Strength

Progressive bone loss and weakening bone strength associated with aging predispose the elderly population to osteoporosis and millions of costly fragility fractures. Micro finite element (µFE) analysis based on clinical high-resolution skeletal imaging provides an accurate computational solution to assessing the mechanical properties of bone, which can be used as the dominant factors for fracture risk. However, the current µFE analysis technique is impractical for clinical use due to its prohibitive computational costs, which result from the “voxel-to-element” approach of modeling human bone regardless of its microstructural pattern. I developed a novel plate-rod microstructural modeling technique for highly efficient patient-specific µFE analysis and translated it to clinical research for the assessment of bone strength in osteoporosis and fragility fractures. Trabecular microstructure is composed of interconnected plate-like and rod-like trabeculae. Instead of converting every image voxel directly into an element, the plate-rod modeling approach created mechanical characterization for every individual trabecular plate and rod. The validation studies demonstrated that the PR model