Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials
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J Mech Behav Biomed Mater · Oct 2016
Experimental validation of DXA-based finite element models for prediction of femoral strength.
Osteoporotic fractures are a major clinical problem and current diagnostic tools have an accuracy of only 50%. The aim of this study was to validate dual energy X-rays absorptiometry (DXA)-based finite element (FE) models to predict femoral strength in two loading configurations. Thirty-six pairs of fresh frozen human proximal femora were scanned with DXA and quantitative computed tomography (QCT). ⋯ In both configurations the DXA-based FE model provided a good 1:1 agreement with the experimental data (CC=0.87 for SIDE and CC=0.86 for STANCE), with proper optimization of the failure criteria. In conclusion we found that the DXA-based FE models are a good predictor of femoral strength as compared with experimental data ex vivo. However, it remains to be investigated whether this novel approach can provide good predictions of the risk of fracture in vivo.