ArticleBone2014
Mapping the natural variation in whole bone stiffness and strength across skeletal sites.
Article in Bone, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Rib Geometry Explains Variation in Dynamic Structural Response: Potential Implications for Frontal Impact Fracture Risk.Annals of biomedical engineering · 2017Trial
- An assessment of skeletal fracture patterning resulting from fatal motorcycle crashes.International journal of legal medicine · 2026Article
- The Multifactorial Relationship Between Bone Tissue Water and Stiffness at the Proximal Femur.Calcified tissue international · 2025Article
- Impact of outer width of the metacarpal diaphysis on the identification of low bone mass in children.PloS one · 2025Article
- Characterizing Bone Phenotypes Related to Skeletal Fragility Using Advanced Medical Imaging.Current osteoporosis reports · 2023Review
- Mechanical metric for skeletal biomechanics derived from spectral analysis of stiffness matrix.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Isolated Cyclic Loading During Adolescence Improves Tibial Bone Microstructure and Strength at Adulthood.JBMR plus · 2020Article
- High Impact Exercise Improves Bone Microstructure and Strength in Growing Rats.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- External Bone Size Is a Key Determinant of Strength-Decline Trajectories of Aging Male Radii.Journal of bone and mineral research : the official journal of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research · 2019Article
- The relationship between whole bone stiffness and strength is age and sex dependent.Journal of biomechanics · 2019Article
- Article
- Femoral Neck External Size but not aBMD Predicts Structural and Mass Changes for Women Transitioning Through Menopause.Journal of bone and mineral research : the official journal of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research · 2017Article
- Canalization Leads to Similar Whole Bone Mechanical Function at Maturity in Two Inbred Strains of Mice.Journal of bone and mineral research : the official journal of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research · 2017Article
- Ultimate fracture load of cadaver proximal humeri correlates more strongly with mean combined cortical thickness than with areal cortical index, DEXA density, or canal-to-calcar ratio.Bone & joint research · 2017Article
- How Does Bone Strength Compare Across Sex, Site, and Ethnicity?Clinical orthopaedics and related research · 2015Article
- Women Build Long Bones With Less Cortical Mass Relative to Body Size and Bone Size Compared With Men.Clinical orthopaedics and related research · 2015Article
- Osteogenic and Neurogenic Stem Cells in Their Own Place: Unraveling Differences and Similarities Between Niches.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2015Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Traits of the skeletal system are coordinately adjusted to establish mechanical homeostasis in response to genetic and environmental factors. Prior work demonstrated that this 'complex adaptive' process is not perfect, revealing a two-fold difference in whole bone stiffness of the tibia across a population. Robustness (specifically, total cross-sectional area relative to length) varies widely across skeletal sites and between sexes. However, it is unknown whether the natural variation in whole bone stiffness and strength also varies across skeletal sites and between men and women. We tested the hypotheses that: 1) all major long bones of the appendicular skeleton demonstrate inherent, systemic constraints in the degree to which morphological and compositional traits can be adjusted for a given robustness; and 2) these traits covary in a predictable manner independent of body size and robustness. We assessed the functional relationships among robustness, cortical area (Ct.Ar), cortical tissue mineral density (Ct.TMD), and bone strength index (BSI) across the long bones of the upper and lower limbs of 115 adult men and women. All bones showed a significant (p<0.001) positive regression between BSI and robustness after adjusting for body size, with slender bones being 1.7-2.3 times less stiff and strong in men and 1.3-2.8 times less stiff and strong in women compared to robust bones. Our findings are the first to document the natural inter-individual variation in whole bone stiffness and strength that exist within populations and that is predictable based on skeletal robustness for all major long bones. Documenting and further understanding this natural variation in strength may be critical for differentially diagnosing and treating skeletal fragility.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.