Axial cortical involvement of metastatic lesions to identify impending femoral fractures; a clinical validation study.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Patients with advanced cancer may develop painful bone metastases, potentially resulting in pathological fractures. Adequate fracture risk assessment is of key importance to prevent fracturing and maintain mobility. This study aims to validate the clinical reliability of axial cortical involvement with a 30 mm threshold on conventional radiographs to assess fracture risk in femoral bone metastases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All patients with bone metastases who received radiotherapy for pain included in two multicentre prospective studies were selected. Conventional radiographs obtained at a maximum of two months prior to radiotherapy were collected. Three experts independently measured lesions and scored radiographic characteristics. Sensitivity, specificity, positive (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated. RESULTS: Hundred patients were included with a median follow-up of 23.0 months (95%CI: 10.6-35.5). Two fractures occurred in lesions with axial cortical involvement <30 mm, and 12 in lesions ≥30 mm. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV of axial cortical involvement for predicting femoral fractures were 86%, 50%, 20% and 96%, respectively. Patients with lesions ≥30 mm had a 5.3 times higher fracture risk than patients with smaller lesions. CONCLUSION: Our validation study confirmed the use of 30 mm axial cortical involvement to assess fracture risk in femoral bone metastases. Until a more accurate and practically feasible method has been developed, this clinical parameter remains an easy method to assess femoral fracture risk to aid patients and clinicians to choose the optimal individual treatment modality.

Low-field magnetic resonance imaging offers potential for measuring tibial component migration.

BACKGROUND: Roentgen stereophotogrammetric analysis (RSA) is used to measure early prosthetic migration and to predict future implant failure. RSA has several disadvantages, such as the need for perioperatively inserted tantalum markers. Therefore, this study evaluates low-field MRI as an alternative to RSA. The use of traditional MRI with prostheses induces disturbing metal artifacts which are reduced by low-field MRI. The purpose of this study is to assess the feasibility to use low-field (0.25 Tesla) MRI for measuring the precision of zero motion. This was assessed by calculating the virtual prosthetic motion of a zero-motion prosthetic reconstruction in multiple scanning sessions. Furthermore, the effects of different registration methods on these virtual motions were tested. RESULTS: The precision of zero motion for low-field MRI was between 0.584 mm and 1.974 mm for translation and 0.884° and 3.774° for rotation. The manual registration method seemed most accurate, with µ ≤ 0.13 mm (σ ≤ 0.931 mm) for translation and µ ≤ 0.15° (σ ≤ 1.63°) for rotation. CONCLUSION: Low-field MRI is not yet as precise as today's golden standard (marker based RSA) as reported in the literature. However, low-field MRI is feasible of measuring the relative position of bone and implant with comparable precision as obtained with marker-free RSA techniques. Of the three registration methods tested, manual registration was most accurate. Before starting clinical validation further research is necessary and should focus on improving scan sequences and registration algorithms.

Biomechanical evaluation of the vertebral jack tool and the inflatable bone tamp for reduction of osteoporotic spine fractures.

STUDY DESIGN: Controlled in vitro study. OBJECTIVE: To compare two kyphoplasty techniques in cadaveric fractured vertebrae: an experimental vertebral jack tool (VJT) and an inflatable bone tamp (IBT). SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: A previous biomechanical study showed restored strength and stiffness after height restoration in cadaveric-fractured osteoporotic vertebrae using a new device for reduction of osteoporotic vertebral fractures. METHODS: Anterior wedge fractures (AO type A1.2) were created in 8 (4 lumbar, 4 thoracic) vertebrae by displacement eccentric external forces. In all vertebrae the amount of height reduction was 35%. After compression, 4 vertebrae were restored in height using the VJT procedure. Four vertebrae were restored in height using the IBT procedure. Posttreatment strength and stiffness of the vertebrae were determined by a compression test identical to the pretreatment compression protocol. RESULTS.: In the VJT group the post-restoration strength was 81% +/- 13% of the original strength and in the IBT group it was 96% +/- 32%. The post-restoration stiffness in the VJT group was 61% +/- 42% of the original stiffness and in the IBT group 76% +/- 62% of the original stiffness. The vertebrae in the VJT group were restored to 101% +/- 2% of their original height whereas this was 104% +/- 14% in the IBT group. In this study, no cases of cement leakage were found. No cases of damaging of the end plates, new fractures or perforations were seen in both groups. The mean amount of cement inserted for the VJT group was 3.6 +/- 0.9 cm and for the IBT group 5.9 +/- 0.8 cm. CONCLUSION: Both kyphoplasty procedures were able to restore height in this in vitro study, while strength and stiffness were partially restored, with no significant differences. In this study on average significant less cement was used in the VJT procedure. No complications were noted in both groups. This new end plate-to-end plate laminar augmentation technique may be of clinical advantage.