Findings from University of Pennsylvania broaden understanding of bone research.

In this recent report, researchers in the United States conducted a study "To develop and evaluate a method based on ultrashort echo-time radial magnetic resonance (MR) imaging to quantify bone water (BW) concentration as a new metric of bone quality in human cortical bone in vivo. Human subject studies were institutional review board approved and HIPAA compliant; informed consent was obtained."

"Cortical BW concentration was determined with custom-designed MR imaging sequences at 3.0 T and was validated in sheep and human cortical bone by using exchange of native water with deuterium oxide (D2O). The submillisecond T2* of BW requires correction for relaxation losses during the radiofrequency pulse. BW was measured at the tibial midshaft in healthy pre- and postmenopausal women (mean age, 34.6 and 69.4 years, respectively; n = 5 in each group) and in patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis (mean age, 51.8 years; n = 6) and was compared with bone mineral density (BMD) at the same site at peripheral quantitative computed tomography, as well as with BMD of the lumbar spine and hip at dual x- ray absorptiometry. Data were analyzed by using the Pearson correlation coefficient and two- sided t tests as appropriate. Excellent agreement was obtained ex vivo between the water displaced by using D2O exchange and water measured with respect to a reference sample (r(2) = 0.99, P

The researchers concluded: "A new MR imaging-based method for quantifying BW noninvasively has been demonstrated."

Techawiboonwong and colleagues published their study in ...