Relationship of bone quality, muscle performance and body composition in osteopenic women, high performance athletes and young adults with eating disorders & changes in bone quality measured with 3D HR-pQCTafter vibration training in osteopenic women

• Applicant: Dr. Anna-Maria Liphardt
• Subject Area: Orthopaedics, Traumatology, Reconstructive Surgery
• Term: from 2009 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 142562539

Bone microarchitecture and bone mineral density (BMD) are important determinants of bone quality and corresponding predictors of fracture risk. The current clinical standard for assessing bone quality is areal BMD measured with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA); however, this 2 dimensional measure does not assess detailed aspects of bone microarchitecture. Newly developed high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) provides the opportunity to assess bone microarchitecture in vivo on a subject-specific basis. Further, 3D data from HR-pQCT can be incorporated into FE modeling to directly estimate subject-specific bone strength. This novel technique will be applied to four different studies. A screening study will investigate relations between bone microarchitecture by HR-pQCT, aBMD by DXA, muscle performance and body composition in postmenopausal women. Vibration training is a promising training method for enhancing BMD in postmenopausal women. In a 12 month longitudinal study we will investigate the effect of vibration training on bone quality by HR-pQCT, muscle function and aBMD. Similar methods will be used to investigate bone quality and muscle function in adolescents and young adults who i) have been diagnosed with an eating disorder or ii) are elite athletes. This age group is specifically of interest as bone accrual during growth is considered an important determinant of bone health later in life. Malnutrition as well has high levels of exercise during this critical period can affect bone mass accrual. Based on these observations, the long-term purpose of the overall project is to establish HR-pQCT as a tool for monitoring bone health in clinical research and to better understand the contribution of bone microarchitecture to bone strength and the relation between bone quality and muscle performance in different age groups and under extreme conditions such as malnutrition and high performance training.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: Canada
• Host: Professor Steven Boyd, Ph.D.