Fatemeh Radaei

Shahriar Gharibzadeh

Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology

PubMed

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BIOENGINEERING AND BIOTECHNOLOGY
It is known that due to decreasing bone 
formation, Bone Mineral Density (BMD) 
decreases in osteoporotic patients (Bone 
et al., 2000). In addition, some researchers 
have shown that osteoporotic patients suffer 
from balance disorders and increasing risk 
of falls (Sinaki et al., 2005).
Basically, five factors determine one’s 
level of stability and mobility: (1) size of 
the base of support, (2) height of the center 
of mass, (3) location of the center of mass 
projection within the base of support, (4) 
body mass, and (5) friction (Whiting and 
Rugg, 2005). In some researches, it has been 
mentioned that height of the center of the 
mass decreases in osteoporotic patients, 
but its effect on instability of the patients 
is not significant, and in osteoporotic cases, 
there will be a great reduction in body mass, 
which has a negative effect on their stability 
(Ludlow, 2006). Researches have not men-
tioned the change of size of the base of sup-
port and friction (first and five factors).
Based on the above-mentioned points, 
we think that factors 1 and 5 will not 
change. In addition, we hypothesize that 
Relationship between bone mineral density and balance 
disorders in osteoporotic patients
Fatemeh Radaei and Shahriar Gharibzadeh*
Neural and Cognitive Sciences Laboratory, Biomedical Engineering Faculty, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
*Correspondence: gharibza@aut.ac.ir
Edited by:
Ridha Hambli, Polytechnique Orléans, France
Keywords: bone mineral density, the center of the mass, bone loss, instability, osteoporotic patients
in  osteoporotic patients, who have less 
BMD in comparison to age matched 
healthy individuals, center of mass of their 
bones and as the result, center of mass of 
their body have changed, so the location 
of their center of mass projection within 
the base of support changes. Hence, oste-
oporotic patients have balance disorders 
while standing or walking and risk of 
falls is high among them. It is proposed 
that they wear special shoes in order to 
compensate the change of center of mass 
projection to reduce the risk of falls, 
and their shoes should be provided with 
more frictional resistance at the interface 
between the ground and any contact point 
to increase their stability. Surely experi-
mental researches and clinical trials are 
needed to validate our hypothesis.
RefeRences
Bone, H. G., Greenspan, S. L., McKeever, C., Bell, N., 
Davidson, M., Downs, R. W., et al. (2000). Alendronate 
effects in postmenopausal women with low bone min-
eral density: Alendronate/Estrogen Study Group. J. 
Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 85, 720–726. doi: 10.1210/
jc.85.2.720
Sinaki, M., Brey, R. H., Hughes, C. A., Larson, D. R., and 
Kaufman, K. R. (2005). Balance disorder and increased 
risk of falls in osteoporosis and kyphosis: significance 
of kyphotic posture and muscle strength. Osteoporos. 
Int. 16, 1004–1010. doi: 10.1007/s00198-004-1791-2
Whiting, W. C., and Rugg, S. (2005). Dynatomy: Dynamic 
Human Anatomy, 1st Edn. Champaign: Human 
Kinetics.
Ludlow, J. (2006). Osteoporosis – Weighing in on Aging 
Bones: Excessive Weight Loss and Age-Related Structural 
Change May Contribute to Fracture Risk. Medical News 
Today. Available at: http://www.medicalnewstoday.
com/releases/44626.php
Received: 28 July 2013; accepted: 15 August 2013; published 
online: 19 September 2013.
Citation: Radaei F and Gharibzadeh S (2013) Relationship 
between bone mineral density and balance disorders in 
osteoporotic patients. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 1:5. doi: 
10.3389/fbioe.2013.00005
This article was submitted to Biomechanics, a section of 
the journal Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology.
Copyright © 2013 Radaei and Gharibzadeh. This is an 
open-access article distributed under the terms of the 
Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, 
distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, 
provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited 
and that the original publication in this journal is cited, 
in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, 
distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not 
comply with these terms.
www.frontiersin.org September 2013 | Volume 1 | Article 05 | 1
OpiniOn Article
published: 19 September 2013
doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2013.00005


Relationship between Bone Mineral Density and Balance Disorders in Osteoporotic Patients

Fatemeh eRadaei

Shahriar eGharibzadeh

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Relationship between Bone Mineral Density and Balance Disorders in Osteoporotic Patients

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