title: Accuracy and reproducibility of bending stiffness measurements by mechanical response tissue analysis in artificial human ulnas.
abstract: Osteoporosis is characterized by reduced bone strength, but no FDA-approved medical device measures bone strength. Bone strength is strongly associated with bone stiffness, but no FDA-approved medical device measures bone stiffness either. Mechanical Response Tissue Analysis (MRTA) is a non-significant risk, non-invasive, radiation-free, vibration analysis technique for making immediate, direct functional measurements of the bending stiffness of long bones in humans in vivo. MRTA has been used for research purposes for more than 20 years, but little has been published about its accuracy. To begin to investigate its accuracy, we compared MRTA measurements of bending stiffness in 39 artificial human ulna bones to measurements made by Quasistatic Mechanical Testing (QMT). In the process, we also quantified the reproducibility (i.e., precision and repeatability) of both methods. MRTA precision (1.0±1.0%) and repeatability (3.1 ± 3.1%) were not as high as those of QMT (0.2 ± 0.2% and 1.3+1.7%, respectively; both p<10(-4)). The relationship between MRTA and QMT measurements of ulna bending stiffness was indistinguishable from the identity line (p=0.44) and paired measurements by the two methods agreed within a 95% confidence interval of ± 5%. If such accuracy can be achieved on real human ulnas in situ, and if the ulna is representative of the appendicular skeleton, MRTA may prove clinically useful.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, USA.
authors.forename: Patricia A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Arnold
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, USA.
authors.forename: Emily R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Ellerbrock
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, USA.
authors.forename: Lyn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bowman
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, USA. Electronic address: loucks@ohio.edu.
authors.forename: Anne B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Loucks
mesh_terms: D001186:Artificial Limbs; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D006801:Humans; D008422:Materials Testing / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014457:Ulna; D014732:Vibration
keywords: Bending stiffness; Composite ulna; Mechanical response tissue analysis; Quasistatic mechanical testing