Effect of local density changes on the failure load of the proximal femur.

Hip fracture among the elderly is a large and growing public health issue. Presently, all therapies approved for treatment and prevention of osteoporosis involve pharmacological agents that act systemically. In this study, we evaluated the feasibility of preventing osteoporotic hip fractures with local, rather than systemic, therapy.

The effect of trabecular structure on DXA-based predictions of bovine bone failure.

The objective of this study was to determine the influence of structural organization on the relationship between clinically assessed bone mineral density (BMD) and strength of trabecular bone. Accurate assessment of bone strength or fracture risk is a critical need as the population ages and the incidence of fractures increases. While ex vivo tests have demonstrated that BMD measured with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) correlates with failure load of whole bones, it is also known that the strength of trabecular bone cannot be explained by density alone.