title: A new computational efficient approach for trabecular bone analysis using beam models generated with skeletonized graph technique.
abstract: Micro-finite element (FE) analysis is a well established technique for the evaluation of the elastic properties of trabecular bone, but is limited in its application due to the large number of elements that it requires to represent the complex internal structure of the bone. In this paper, we present an alternative FE approach that makes use of a recently developed 3D-Line Skeleton Graph Analysis (LSGA) technique to represent the complex internal structure of trabecular bone as a network of simple straight beam elements in which the beams are assigned geometrical properties of the trabeculae that they represent. Since an enormous reduction of cputime can be obtained with this beam modeling approach, ranging from approximately 1,200 to 3,600 for the problems investigated here, we think that the FE modeling technique that we introduced could potentially constitute an interesting alternative for the evaluation of the elastic mechanical properties of trabecular bone.
authors.affiliation: Magnetic Resonance Science Center, Department of Radiology, University of California, San Francisco, 94143-1290, USA.
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pothuaud
authors.forename: Bert
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Van Rietbergen
authors.forename: Cindy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Charlot
authors.forename: Eugene
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ozhinsky
authors.forename: Sharmila
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Majumdar
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003205:Computing Methodologies; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009716:Numerical Analysis, Computer-Assisted