Synchrotron-light time-elapsed imaging of human femoral neck fracture

The age-related microstructural deterioration of bone is an important co-factor to millions of fragility fractures occurring worldwide every year [1]. Time-lapsed micro-computed-tomography (micro-CT) with concomitant mechanical testing is increasingly used to study the bone deformation and fracture mechanism. However, technological limitations linked to the size of the human femoral epiphysis (up to 130 mm width, 150 mm length) and the need of a dedicated mechanical stage for loading such a big specimen inside the imaging chamber, have limited previous studies to either micro-CT imaging of the unloaded femoral epiphysis [1] or of small loaded femur cores [2]. We developed a protocol for time-elapsed micro-CT imaging of entire human femoral epiphyses under load at the Australian Synchrotron (AS).