The effect of hormone treatment on the plastic characteristic of osteoporotic vertebral trabecular bone

Many researchers have investigated the elastic characteristic of trabecular bones by using the microfinite element (Micro-FE) models based on the microcomputed tomography (micro-CT). However, there were few micro-FE models to account for the plastic characteristic of trabecular bones. The present study analyzed the plastic characteristic as well as the elastic characteristic of the trabecular bone and evaluated the effect of specimen size on the plastic characteristic of vertebral trabecular bones. Previous researchers reported that a cubic specimen with side length 6.5 mm was suggested as a standard specimen for the experimental tests of trabecular bones. The present study examined whether the effects of the specimen size on the experimental tests may be also applied to the simulated compression test of trabecular bone specimens and investigated the effect of voxel resolution on the plastic characteristic of micro-FE models. The results illustrate that in the simulated compression test to analyze mechanical characteristics of vertebral trabecular bones, it is recommended to use a cubic specimen with side length 6.5 mm rather than a cubic specimen with side length 4 mm. It is also found that the hormone therapy is likely to be less effective than the amount reported by previous researcher for 2D models.