Current clinical bone diagnostic measures rely predominantly on X-ray-based contrast and are primarily sensitive to bone mineral content. Since bone also contains collagen and water components, which are heavily implicated in fracture resistance, these X-ray measures are micro-anatomically incomplete and do not identify individuals who will fracture. This dissertation aims to improve clinical bone fracture risk assessment through the use of novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods, which provide quantitative measures of the non-mineral bone components. The overall goal is to advance our understanding of 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxation in human cortical bone to the point that diagnostically-relevant parameters may be extracted from in vivo bone MRI measurements. To accomplish this, custom NMR hardware was first developed for a rigorous, NMR relaxation-based characterization of ex vivo cortical bone. Such characterization was used to identify the micro-anatomical origins of cortical bone NMR signal components, which included collagen, bound water, and pore water protons. These signal components correlated well with various bone mechanical properties, indicating diagnostic relevance. Using the well-characterized cortical bone relaxation characteristics, novel and clinically practical methods for quantitative, diagnostic bone MRI were developed and validated. Collectively, this work represents a biophysical basis for cortical bone MRI, which stands ready for translation to clinical and research studies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-11182011-122638 |
| Date | 23 November 2011 |
| Creators | Horch, Robert Adam |
| Contributors | Mark D. Does, Bruce M. Damon, Jeffry S. Nyman, Daniel F. Gochberg, John C. Gore |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-11182011-122638/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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