PREDICTION OF OSTEOPOROTIC FRACTURES BY DXA-BASED FINITE ELEMENT PROCEDURE

摘要

A finite element procedure based on the patient's femur DXA image is proposed for evaluating patient-specific osteoporotic fracture risk. The proposed procedure consists of five steps, reading in and scaling DXA, identifying bone boundary and generating finite element mesh, correlating DXA numbers with bone mechanical properties, assigning material properties to element nodes, and predicting fracture risk. Two loading conditions, representing single-leg stance and lateral side falling respectively, are considered. The proposed finite element procedure is expected to provide more accurate assessment of osteoporosis.