Buccino Federica, Colombo Chiara, Vergani Laura Maria
Department of Mechanical Engineering (DMEC), Politecnico di Milano, Via La Masa 1, 20154 Milano, Italy.
Materials (Basel). 2021 Mar 5;14(5):1240. doi: 10.3390/ma14051240.
The investigation of bone damage processes is a crucial point to understand the mechanisms of age-related bone fractures. In order to reduce their impact, early diagnosis is key. The intricate architecture of bone and the complexity of multiscale damage processes make fracture prediction an ambitious goal. This review, supported by a detailed analysis of bone damage physical principles, aims at presenting a critical overview of how multiscale imaging techniques could be used to implement reliable and validated numerical tools for the study and prediction of bone fractures. While macro- and meso-scale imaging find applications in clinical practice, micro- and nano-scale imaging are commonly used only for research purposes, with the objective to extract fragility indexes. Those images are used as a source for multiscale computational damage models. As an example, micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) images in combination with micro-finite element models could shed some light on the comprehension of the interaction between micro-cracks and micro-scale bone features. As future insights, the actual state of technology suggests that these models could be a potential substitute for invasive clinical practice for the prediction of age-related bone fractures. However, the translation to clinical practice requires experimental validation, which is still in progress.
对骨损伤过程的研究是理解与年龄相关的骨折机制的关键所在。为了降低其影响，早期诊断至关重要。骨骼错综复杂的结构以及多尺度损伤过程的复杂性使得骨折预测成为一个宏伟目标。本综述在对骨损伤物理原理进行详细分析的支持下，旨在对多尺度成像技术如何用于实现可靠且经过验证的数值工具以研究和预测骨折进行批判性概述。虽然宏观和细观尺度成像在临床实践中有应用，但微观和纳米尺度成像通常仅用于研究目的，目标是提取脆性指标。这些图像被用作多尺度计算损伤模型的数据源。例如，微计算机断层扫描（micro-CT）图像与微观有限元模型相结合，可能有助于理解微裂纹与微观尺度骨特征之间的相互作用。作为未来的见解，技术的实际状况表明，这些模型可能成为预测与年龄相关的骨折的侵入性临床实践的潜在替代方法。然而，向临床实践的转化需要实验验证，这仍在进行中。
