Nano-structural, compositional and micro-architectural signs of cortical bone fragility at the superolateral femoral neck in elderly hip fracture patients vs. healthy aged controls

Effect of sequential treatments with alendronate, parathyroid hormone (1–34) and raloxifene on cortical bone mass and strength in ovariectomized rats

“…Surface reference point indentation measurements were made ex vivo on blind-coded, randomized whole right femurs, using established protocols [80–84] modified as noted below. The bone was soaked in normal saline at room temperature for at least 30min.…”

“…The number of rejected test sites per bone ranged from zero to three. The endpoints measured at successful sites were first cycle indentation distance (IDI) (μm) and AED (average energy dissipation (J)) [80–84]. Both IDI and AED were the average of the values measured at the five separate successful measurement sites.…”

Understanding the pathogenesis of hip fracture in the elderly, osteoporotic theory is not reflected in the outcome of prevention programmes

“…In a similar fashion, mineral crystals at the external cortical bone surfaces of the femoral neck of patients with a fractured hip are larger than in a nonfracture control group. Moreover, the mineral content is higher, with cortical porosity values being almost 35% higher than in control groups, while the osteocyte lacunar number density is significantly lower than in controls [11] . Consequently, the cortical bone of the superolateral femoral neck of hip fracture patients presents distinct signs of fragility at various levels of its structure [12] .…”

Microstructure and wettability of root canal dentine and root canal filling materials after different chemical irrigation

“…Quantitative backscattered electron imaging (qBEI) was employed to measure the degree of mineralization of the specimens before and after the treatment. The electron beam energy was maintained at 20 kV, and the probe current was maintained constant at 680 pA using a Faraday cup (Mac Consultants Ltd., England) and a picoampere meter, according to previous studies [22,23]. The grey scale values of carbon and aluminum standards were kept at 5 ± 1 and 222.4 ± 1, respectively, by processing the images using Image J software (National Institute of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MA, USA).…”

“…Therefore, for a comprehensive understanding of the effects of irrigants, it is important to measure dentine mineralization and its mechanical properties. To analyze the mean calcium content and the mineral density distribution of substrates, Milovanovic and coworkers have used successfully quantitative backscattered electron imaging (qBEI) in bone tissue characterization [22,23]. In addition, researchers have applied reference point indentation (RPI) to measure the mechanical properties of bone and dentine [24][25][26].…”