Bone Abstracts

EpiReumaPt is a cross-sectional, epidemiologic study to estimate the prevalence of rheumatic diseases in Portugal. Selected cases randomized from the 10 000 Portuguese subjects recruited are eventually observed by a rheumatologist. Portuguese and Spanish FRAX® tool were applied. The major osteoporotic (MOFR) and hip (HFR) fracture risk were calculated without DXA results.The FRAX tool has been developed by WHO to evaluate 10 years fracture risk. It ...

Introduction: To determine bone microarchitecture analysis (BMA) standard curves for wrist and ankle in men and women.Design: EpiReumaPt is an ongoing national, population-based, cross-sectional, epidemiologic study developed by the Portuguese Society of Rheumatology to estimate the prevalence of rheumatic diseases in Portugal. Trained interviewers have been randomly applying a standardized questionnaire to 10 000 subjects at their houses. Selected cases...

Objective: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative, slowly developing joint disease. Although clinical indications of OA can vary among different definitions there is a general agreement that the disease is associated with cartilage narrowing. However, there is no general consensus about the threshold below which the joint space width (JSW)/joint space area (JSA) can be certain indicators for the state of OA. Therefore this study evaluates these limits to reveal quantitative inf...

Objective: Texture information of the subchondral bone area (SBA) of 2D radiographs represents a promising possibility for evaluating the state of osteoarthritis (OA). However such features are likely to vary within the SBA and therefore the selection of the region of interest (ROI) plays a crucial role. Thus, a feature selection algorithm (FSA) is being applied in order to determine ROIs that enable an optimum discrimination between patients with and without OA.<p class="...

New treatment agents against osteoporosis may not only lead to an improved trabecular structure, but can probably also strengthen the cortex. To assess this treatment effects by means of QCT, one has to deal with significant partial volume effects observing this very thin, but compact structure. A new method for cortical thickness estimation has been developed using an analytical deconvolution approach. After estimating the point-spread-function (PSF) of a scanner/kernel combi...

Quantitative Computed Tomography (QCT) can be performed with different protocols. We investigated whether selection of spatial resolution, reconstruction method, and scanner type have an impact on measured treatment effects for different bone compartments.Methods: In a multi-center study, a group of 50 men, age 55.1 (range 25–78) undergoing 18 months of either osteoanabolic (n=25) or antiresorptive treatment (n=25) were scanned wit...

Multiple myeloma (MM) is associated with lytic bone destruction leading to high fracture incidence in the vertebrae. Accurate assessment of fracture risk is required for physicians to determine the necessity for surgery. This risk is currently determined by examining lesion size or number; however, this method does not consider the biomechanical attributes of the bone. Finite element (FE) modelling can simulate mechanical loading on vertebral bodies, and estimate mechanical in...

Bone mineral density (BMD) as measured by quantitative computed tomography (QCT) is biased by the variable marrow composition since marrow fat reduces the apparent BMD. We developed a marrow densitometry (MD) method that identifies subvolumes in the vertebrae that consist of bone marrow only (bone voids) and determines their average mineral equivalent density values. The method was developed for use with in vivo high resolution QCT (HR-QCT). HR-QCT still has limited s...

Proteoglycans are abundant and structurally complex bio macromolecules. They reside on the cell surface and are a major component of the extracellular matrix including bone. Defective formation of proteoglycans may case pleiotropic connective tissue syndromes including EDS-like and Larsen syndrome–like phenotypes.We report on a girl with disproportionate short stature and joint laxity with pes planus and radial head dislocation. She was previously a...

Background: Bone involvement in patients with β-thalassemia is well known, but only few studies have analyzed bone microarchitecture and the prevalence of intervertebral disc calcifications (IDCs) in these patients. The aim of our study was to evaluate the bone quality in a group of patients with β-thalassemia in terms of geometry and microarchitecture properties; moreover, we evaluated the presence of IDCs in these patients.Material and method...