Spatial assessment of femoral neck bone density and microstructure in hip osteoarthritis

• Published in: Bone Reports 2022-06, Vol.16, p.101155-101155, Article 101155
• Main Authors: Auger, Joshua D., Naik, Amartya J., Murakami, Akira M., Gerstenfeld, Louis C., Morgan, Elise F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bone; Femur; Full Length; Hip; Imaging; Micro-computed tomography; Microstructure; Osteoarthritis
• ISSN: 2352-1872; 2352-1872
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bonr.2021.101155

Osteoarthritis (OA) is known to involve profound changes in bone density and microstructure near to, and even distal to, the joint. Critically, however, a full, spatial picture of these abnormalities has not been well documented in a quantitative fashion in hip OA. Here, micro-computed tomography (44.8 μm/voxel) and data-driven computational anatomy were used to generate 3-D maps of the distribution of bone density and microstructure in human femoral neck samples with early (6F/4M, mean age = 51.3 years), moderate (14F/8M, mean age = 60 years), and severe (16F/6M, mean age = 63.3 years) radiographic OA. With increasing severity of radiographic OA, there was decreased cortical bone mineral density (BMD) (p=0.003), increased cortical thickness (p=0.001), increased cortical porosity (p=0.0028), and increased cortical cross-sectional area (p=0.0012, due to an increase in periosteal radius (p=0.018)), with no differences detected in the total femoral neck or trabecular compartment measures. No OA-related region-specific differences were detected through Statistical Parametric Mapping, but there were trends towards decreased tissue mineral density (TMD) in the inferior femoral neck with increasing OA severity (0.050