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Scanning Skeletal Remains for Bone Mineral Density in Forensic Contexts
Published on: January 29, 2018
Volume to density relation in adult human bone tissue
Simone Tassani1, Caroline Ohman, Fabio Baruffaldi
1Laboratorio di Tecnologia Medica, Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Bologna, Via di Barbiano, 1/10, 40136 Bologna, Italy.
Journal of Biomechanics
|September 21, 2010
Summary
Tissue mineral density (TMD) is consistent across different adult human bone types and anatomical sites. This finding supports using TMD as a constant in computational bone models, focusing variations on bone volume.
Area of Science:
- Orthopedics
- Biomaterials Science
- Bone Physiology
Background:
- Bone mineral density (BMD) is clinically used but doesn't distinguish between tissue mineral density (TMD) and bone volume changes.
- Understanding TMD uniformity is crucial for accurate bone mechanical behavior analysis and computational modeling.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the constancy of tissue mineral density (TMD) in adult human cortical and trabecular bone.
- To determine if TMD varies significantly across different anatomical locations or bone types.
Main Methods:
- Collected 115 human bone specimens (cortical and trabecular) from various anatomical sites.
- Utilized micro-computed tomography to determine bone volume fraction (BV/TV).
- Measured ash density (ρ(ash)) and calculated TMD as ρ(ash)/BV/TV.
Main Results:
- Tissue mineral density (TMD) showed no statistically significant difference between trabecular (1.24 ± 0.16 g/cm³) and cortical (1.19 ± 0.06 g/cm³) bone.
- A strong linear correlation (r²=0.99, p<0.001) was found between ash density and bone volume fraction.
- Intra- and inter-site analyses confirmed mineral distribution independence from the extraction site.
Conclusions:
- Tissue mineral density (TMD) can be considered a constant in non-pathological adult human bone.
- TMD constancy simplifies computational bone modeling, allowing focus on bone volume variations for densitometric analysis.
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