A Statistical Model of Shape and Bone Mineral Density Distribution of the Proximal Femur for Fracture Risk Assessment

This work presents a statistical model of both the shape and Bone Mineral Density (BMD) distribution of the proximal femur for fracture risk assessment. The shape and density model was built from a dataset of Quantitative Computed Tomography scans of fracture patients and a control group. Principal Component Analysis and Horn’s parallel analysis were used to reduce the dimensionality of the shape and density model to the main modes of variation. The input data was then used to analyze the model parameters for the optimal separation between the fracture and control group. Feature selection using the Fisher criterion determined the parameters with the best class separation, which were used in Fisher Linear Discriminant Analysis to find the direction in the parameter space that best separates the fracture and control group. This resulted in a Fisher criterion value of 6.70, while analyzing the Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry derived femur neck areal BMD of the same subjects resulted in a Fisher criterion value of 0.98. This indicates that a fracture risk estimation approach based on the presented model might improve upon the current standard clinical practice.