Within athletic populations, skeletal structure variability is an often overlooked aspect that has clinically significant consequences. Competitive athletes excel in their sport in part due to exceptional anatomical characteristics. For example, the average Olympic gymnast is much shorter than the national average while Olympic swimmers tend to have long torsos and arms. The effect these irregularities have on peak stress within joints is not fully understood. Accordingly, this study displays a method of characterizing bone mineral density distribution and morphologic variability within skeletal structures. The C1 and C2 vertebrae of the human cervical spine were used as a demonstration of the protocol. Twenty-three cadaveric C1 and C2 spine segments were imaged via quantitative CT-scan. Using the established protocol, the vertebrae segmentations underwent two lenses of analysis. The vertebrae were partitioned into regions and BMD distribution was found. The vertebral levels also underwent statistical shape analysis to quantify their morphological variability. The bone mineral density and morphological analysis in this study demonstrates a novel approach to analyzing skeletal structure variability. This method could feasibly be applied to other skeletal structures of interest in athletic populations. In particular, characterizing morphological variability in joint structures could help increase understanding for injury prevention goals.

Authors: Ryan S. Garay, Cory Ferraz, Giovanni F. Solitro, Kenrick C. Lam, Randal P. Morris, Abeer Albarghouthi, Ronald W. Lindsey, Loren L. Latta, Francesco Travascio