A Model for Bone Strength and Osteoporotic Fractures

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  • 14 September 2000
Abstract
A model of the interior of bones, which can be used to study its breaking strength and effects of osteoporosis is introduced. Analogs of several clinically determined mechanical properties of bone including a nonlinear stress vs. strain relationship, an exponential decay of breaking strength with reduction of Bone Mineral Density (BMD) and a dramatic strengthening of bones following therapeutic regeneration, are observed. The "stress-backbone" in the model changes with external forcing and reductions in the BMD, suggesting possible utility of response measurements in identifying catastrophic decline of bone strength.

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