Regression Analysis of Fracture Toughness for Secondary Osteons Located in Human Cortical Bone

An experiment was carried out in order to locate and quantify osteon types within a sample of cortical bone taken from a human tibia. This was done using a microscope-camera assembly and the BioQuant computer software. The results of this were correlated with a previous experiment's results on fracture toughness so that an analysis could be run on the data in order to determine the factors that most affect the value of fracture toughness of this cortical bone. Results were examined closely and the analysis repeated until the author was satisfied that the best possible model for fracture toughness had been achieved. A combination of usable parameters included: region, porosity, volume fraction of lightfield osteons, volume fraction of hooped osteons, volume fraction of dark osteons, volume fraction of alternating osteons, volume fraction total, density, average diameter total, average diameter of hooped osteons, average diameter of lightfield osteons, average diameter of darkfield osteons and average diameter of alternating osteons. This model explains the parameters that most affect fracture toughness by using a regression analysis, which also provides a regression equation to show exactly how much each specific parameter affects the fracture toughness value. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Lanny Griffin for supplying the necessary materials to conduct this study as well as support and guidance while completing the project and writing the thesis itself.