Recent Studies

ITA App

Trabecular bone is an intricate 3D network of struts and plates. We developed a parameter that measured the angle between two connected trabeculae – the Inter-Trabecular Angle (ITA). An analysis of the inter-trabecular angles (ITAs) of the 3D fabric of the trabecular bone of the human proximal femur reveals the presence of highly conserved underlying topological motifs that include most significantly nodes with 3, 4 and 5 emanating edges in proportions of 12:4:1. The mean values of the ITA distributions approximate the values that are expected from 3D structures where the branches are maximally offset from one another and therefore maximally span 3D space. The 3D spread of trabeculae presumably contributes to the fabric stabilization and redistribution of stresses amongst the maximal number of trabeculae in the fabric. We draw a parallel between trabecular bone and tensegrity structures - where lightweight, resilient and stable tetrahedron-based shapes contribute to strain redistribution amongst all the elements and to collective impact dampening.

The ITA application for Matlab can be downloaded here.

ITA application manual