Permeability prediction of human proximal femoral trabeculae in the direction of superior-to-fovea utilizing directly measured microscopic poroelastic properties

Abstract

Since cancellous bone remodeling is active compared to cortical bone, the fluid communications for the metabolism of osteocytes between the inter-trabecular and intra-trabecular pores should be active compared to those between the vascular and lacunocanalicular pores in osteons. In this study, the permeability coefficient of trabeculae of human proximal femur in the direction of superior-to-fovea is estimated by using the isotropic poroelasticity. Using the pore pressure solution in the drained uniaxial strain condition and the poroelastic properties of trabeculae, effects of the permeability coefficient in the direction of superior-to-fovea on intratrabecular fluid pressure generation are investigated. In the range of the applied permeability coefficient from 10-15 to 10-10 m2/kPa-sec, the predicted maximum intra-trabecular fluid pressure was 754 kPa. The predicted range of intrinsic permeability is from 10-21 to 10-16 m2 when 0.001 Pa-sec of the dynamic viscosity of serum is used. The predicted permeability values are larger than those for cortical tissues. It was reported that the mean lacuna volumes of trabeculae and cortical tissue in the human femur ranged from 445 to 488 µm3 and from 389 to 408µm3, respectively.