GLOBAL TO LOCAL ANALYSIS OF ANISOTROPY IN OSTEOARTHRITIC BONE

Despite the heterogeneous characteristics of cancellous bone, most of the published studies report correlations between mechanical properties and morphometric parameters averaged on the whole specimen [Goulet 1994, Majumdar 1998]. Goulet and Majumdar found a significant improvement in description of mechanical properties variation using a combination of structural parameters and bone volume fraction (BV/TV). Recently the effect of the “off-axis angle” between the load direction and the main trabecular direction (MTD) was established [Ohman 2007]. Recent studies [Nazarian 2006, Perilli 2007] showed that bone-sample failure is mostly localized within the sub-region showing a minimum value of BV/TV (BV/TVmin). Aim of the present work is to propose a method of local analysis able to summarize morphometric, anisotropic and off-axis parameters in a coherent manner.