Body anthropometry and local bone microarchitecture may improve determining hip fracture beyond DEXA

The common clinical methodfor predicting the hip fracture risk is based on Dual-energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DXA) planar measurements of Bone Mineral Density (BMD, T-score) averaged over large femoral regions (neck, trochanteric, inter-trochanteric and Ward’s triangle) and has poor sensitivity and specificity. However, fracture onset is determined by the local tissue properties and the dynamic load caused by the fall, which in turn is determined by the body mass, the speed at touchdown and the energy absorbed by the tissues surrounding the femur. Aims: to reproduce a sideways fall scenario in vitro and to compare 1) femoral fracture outcomes with fracture risk prediction susing the T-score 2) and a combination of clinical-level Computed-Tomography (CT) measurements of BMD and body anthropometric (BA) parameters.