The poor correlation between fracture prevalence and bone mineral density has spurred the search for other parameters affecting the bone's mechanical competence. Although it has generally been assumed that the bone's intrinsic material properties remain unaltered in osteoporosis, there is strong evidence that this may not be the case. Specifically, the question has arisen whether parameters over and beyond material density, often summarized under the term """"""""bone quality"""""""", may affect the bone's resistance to failure. Among the contributors conjectured to confer strength to bone, the structure of the trabecular network has received the greatest attention. Most prior work is based on histomorphometry or imaging of biopsy specimens. However, bone biopsy, because of its invasive nature, is usually not clinically indicated. In this project it is proposed to further develop and clinically evaluate the virtual bone biopsy, conceived in the investigators' laboratory, for assessing trabecular network integrity. The method is based on in vivo magnetic resonance microscopy (IMRI) and involves acquisition of 3D images of a representative volume comprising trabecular bone and marrow at a peripheral surrogate site (distal radius, distal tibia, calcaneus) and at a resolution sufficient to resolve the structural elements. The images are then subjected to a cascade of image restoration and processing steps yielding complete quantitative characterization of the trabecular bone network's three-dimensional topological make-up and scale. Prior work in the investigators' laboratory demonstrates that mu-MRI-derived architectural parameters are strong predictors of the bone's stiffness and provide a detailed picture of the etiology of postmenopausal osteoporotic bone loss, which is a conversion of trabecular plates to rods and disruption of rods. The overall hypothesis of this proposal is that the mu-MRI-based in vivo virtual bone biopsy provides detailed quantitative insight into the architectural implications of bone loss and that it discriminates patients with vertebral fractures from their gender and bone mineral density matched peers.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01AR049553-01
Application #
6577620
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZAR1-TAS-B (O3))
Program Officer
Lester, Gayle E
Project Start
2002-09-25
Project End
2006-08-31
Budget Start
2002-09-25
Budget End
2003-08-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2002
Total Cost
$370,176
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Pennsylvania
Department
Radiation-Diagnostic/Oncology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
042250712
City
Philadelphia
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
19104
Rajapakse, C S; Phillips, E A; Sun, W et al. (2014) Vertebral deformities and fractures are associated with MRI and pQCT measures obtained at the distal tibia and radius of postmenopausal women. Osteoporos Int 25:973-82
Techawiboonwong, Aranee; Song, Hee Kwon; Leonard, Mary B et al. (2008) Cortical bone water: in vivo quantification with ultrashort echo-time MR imaging. Radiology 248:824-33
Techawiboonwong, Aranee; Song, Hee Kwon; Wehrli, Felix W (2008) In vivo MRI of submillisecond T(2) species with two-dimensional and three-dimensional radial sequences and applications to the measurement of cortical bone water. NMR Biomed 21:59-70
Ladinsky, Glenn A; Vasilic, Branimir; Popescu, Andra M et al. (2008) Trabecular structure quantified with the MRI-based virtual bone biopsy in postmenopausal women contributes to vertebral deformity burden independent of areal vertebral BMD. J Bone Miner Res 23:64-74
Wald, Michael J; Vasilic, Branimir; Saha, Punam K et al. (2007) Spatial autocorrelation and mean intercept length analysis of trabecular bone anisotropy applied to in vivo magnetic resonance imaging. Med Phys 34:1110-20
Wehrli, Felix W; Song, Hee Kwon; Saha, Punam K et al. (2006) Quantitative MRI for the assessment of bone structure and function. NMR Biomed 19:731-64
Liu, Xiaowei S; Sajda, Paul; Saha, Punam K et al. (2006) Quantification of the roles of trabecular microarchitecture and trabecular type in determining the elastic modulus of human trabecular bone. J Bone Miner Res 21:1608-17
Magland, J; Vasilic, B; Wehrli, F W (2006) Fast low-angle dual spin-echo (FLADE): a new robust pulse sequence for structural imaging of trabecular bone. Magn Reson Med 55:465-71
Lin, Wei; Wehrli, Felix W; Song, Hee Kwon (2005) Correcting bulk in-plane motion artifacts in MRI using the point spread function. IEEE Trans Med Imaging 24:1170-6
Techawiboonwong, Aranee; Song, Hee Kwon; Magland, Jeremy F et al. (2005) Implications of pulse sequence in structural imaging of trabecular bone. J Magn Reson Imaging 22:647-55

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