A Graph-based approach for computational model of bone microstructure

Osteoporosis, a condition in which bones become fragile and more likely to break, can greatly affect our health. Nearly half of all women now age 50 will someday have a broken bone due to osteoporosis. The diagnosis of osteoporosis is commonly done by tests that measure the amount of bone mass and predict the risk for fracture. However, the currently available techniques for the diagnosis of osteoporosis are limited due to the lack of good measurements of bone quality. In this paper, we develop a graph approached bone microstructure model, which is capable of enabling quantitative assessment of bone mineral density and bone microarchitecture. Our paper focuses on microstructural bone modeling and quantitative characterization of the quality and fractural risk based on the microscopic bone structure. First, we illustrate the process of development on a threedimensional bone structure model whose properties are similar to those of bone microarchitecture. Next, we list problems of the current measurements of bone strength and quality based on bone mineral density (BMD). Last, we introduce our measurements to quantitatively assess bone quality based on the bone model.