Measuring Bone Gain and Loss without Biopsy: “Time-lapse” High Resolution Peripheral Quantitative Computed Tomography (TL HR-pQCT)

Galateia Kazakia, PhD, and researchers in the Bone Quality Research Lab at UCSF are validating a ‘virtual bone biopsy’ using time-lapse High Resolution peripheral Quantitative Computed Tomography (HR-pQCT) for its potential to replace surgical bone biopsy. Currently, surgical bone biopsies are the clinical standard to assess bone formation and resorption, and monitor disease activity and treatment response, but they are invasive, painful, expensive, and cannot monitor disease over time. Furthermore, surgical bone biopsies provide data from a single point in time and so cannot map the varying topology of gain and loss across different locations on the bone which limits understanding of patient response to treatment. Once validated, time-lapse HR-pQCT virtual bone biopsy will be applicable to any study of bone metabolism, enabling precise determination of location and rate of…