In Vivo Deformation and Strain Measurements in Human Bone Using Digital Volume Correlation (DVC) and 3T Clinical MRI

Abstract

Strains within bone play an important role in the remodelling process and the mechanisms of fracture. The ability to assess these strains in vivo can provide clinically relevant information regarding bone health, injury risk, and can also be used to optimise treatments. In vivo bone strains have been investigated using multiple experimental techniques, but none have quantified 3D strains using non-invasive techniques. Digital volume correlation based on clinical MRI (DVC-MRI) is a non-invasive technique that has the potential to achieve this. However, before it can be implemented, uncertainties associated with the measurements must be quantified. Here, DVC-MRI was evaluated to assess its potential to measure in vivo strains in the talus. A zero-strain test (two repeated unloaded scans) was conducted using three MRI sequences, and three DVC approaches to quantify errors and to establish optimal settings. With optimal settings, strains could be measured with a precision of 200 με and accuracy of 480 με for a spatial resolution of 7.5 mm, and a precision of 133 με and accuracy of 251 με for a spatial resolution of 10 mm. These results demonstrate that this technique has the potential to measure relevant levels of in vivo bone strain and to be used for a range of clinical applications.

The Effect of Degeneration on Internal Strains and the Mechanism of Failure in Human Intervertebral Discs Analyzed Using Digital Volume Correlation (DVC) and Ultra-High Field MRI

“…In addition, the novel high-resolution 3D strain maps presented in this study could be used as a valuable source for the validation of computational models. Due to the non-invasive nature of this technique, it has the potential to be implemented in patients (Tavana et al, 2020b), and strains may serve as functional biomechanical markers for a range of clinical applications.…”

High resolution three-dimensional strain measurements in human articular cartilage

“…It is well documented that DVC errors increase in subvolumes comprised of fewer voxels for all imaging modalities and sample types [46][47][48] . The average human mature chondrocyte diameter has been documented to be approximately 13 m 5 .The subvolume size selected for this study (80 voxels or 150 m, Figure 2b,c) provides a compromise between acceptable error and localised measurement of cartilage deformation.…”

Digital image correlation techniques for motion analysis and biomechanical characterization of plants

“…To generate full volume information, its sister technique, digital volume correlation (DVC), is required ( Bay, 2008 ; Roberts et al., 2014 ; Buljac et al., 2018 ). The input for DVC are volume data sets at different time points or loading conditions, for example in-situ tests recorded by computed tomography (CT; Bay et al., 1999 ; Boulanaache et al., 2020 ) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI; Tavana et al., 2020 ; Tavana et al., 2021 ). The underlying correlation calculations are similar to those used in DIC, but refer to 3D voxels rather than 2D subsets.…”