Current protocol in determining if a patient is osteoporotic and their fracture risk is based on dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). DXA gives an indication of their bone mineral density (BMD) which is the product of both the porosity and density of the mineralized bone tissue; this is usually taken at the hip. The DXA results are assessed using the fracture risk assessment tool as recommended by the World Health Organization. While this provides valuable data on a person’s fracture risk advancements in medical imagining technology enables development of more robust and accurate risk assessment tools. In order to develop such tools in vitro analysis of bone is required to assess the morphological properties of bone osteoporotic bone tissue and how these pertain to the fracture toughness (Kcmax) of the tissue.Support was provided by the EPSRC (EP/K020196: Point-ofCare High Accuracy Fracture Risk Prediction), the UK Department of Transport under the BOSCOS (Bone Scanning for Occupant Safety) project, and approved by Gloucester and Cheltenham NHS Trust hospitals under ethical consent (BOSCOS – Mr. Curwen CI REC ref 01/179G)
