What Predisposes a Hip to Fracture

Osteoporosis is a degenerative bone disease characterized by abnormally low bone mass, and is estimated to affect one in two women, and two in five men over 50 years old. To reduce the occurrence of osteoporosis-related hip fractures, a tool is required for early detection of bone fragility in order to implement a timely pharmaceutical or life style intervention. 

The current clinical diagnostic tools have low sensitivity to patient specific fracture risk, but a relatively new approach using 3D finite element (FE) models of the femur, derived from clinical quantitative computed tomography (QCT), has the potential to provide enhanced bone strength predictions.