Influence of microarchitecture on stressed volume and mechanical fatigue behaviour of equine subchondral bone

Fractures of the equine metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint are among the most common and fatal injuries experienced by racehorses. These bone injuries are a direct result of repetitive, high intensity loading of the skeleton during racing and training and there is consensus that they represent a mechan...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bone (New York, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2024-05, Vol.182, p.117054-117054, Article 117054
Main Authors: Koshyk, Andrew, Pohl, Andrew J., Takahashi, Yuji, Scott, W. Michael, Sparks, Holly D., Edwards, W. Brent
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Fetlock
Finite element analysis
Fracture
Fractures, Bone
Horses
Materials Testing
Mechanical properties
Metacarpal Bones - diagnostic imaging
Micro-CT
Upper Extremity
X-Ray Microtomography
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Summary:Fractures of the equine metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint are among the most common and fatal injuries experienced by racehorses. These bone injuries are a direct result of repetitive, high intensity loading of the skeleton during racing and training and there is consensus that they represent a mechanical fatigue phenomenon. Existing work has found the fatigue life of bone to be strongly determined by bone microarchitecture and the resulting stressed volume (i.e., the volume of bone stressed above assumed yield). The purpose of this study was to quantify the influence of bone microarchitecture on the mechanical fatigue behaviour of equine subchondral bone from the MCP joint across a wide variety of sample types. Forty-eight subchondral bone samples were prepared from the third metacarpal (MC3) and proximal phalanx (P1) of 8 horses and subsequently imaged using high resolution micro-computed tomography (μCT) to quantify microarchitectural features of interest, including bone volume fraction, tissue mineral density, pore size, pore spacing, and pore number. Samples were cyclically loaded in compression to a stress of 70 MPa, and fatigue life was defined as the number of cycles until failure. Finite element models were created from the μCT images and used to quantify stressed volume. Based on the expected log point-wise predictive density, stressed volume was a strong predictor of fatigue life in both the MC3 and P1. A regional analysis indicated fatigue life was more strongly associated with bone volume fraction in the superficial (r2 = 0.32, p 
ISSN:8756-3282
1873-2763
DOI:10.1016/j.bone.2024.117054