Femoral cortical/cancellous bone related to age.

The femoral cancellous/cortical relationship with age has been determined in 53 dissected femoral specimens. By means of computed tomography (CT) values related to bone density and mass were assessed in the femoral head, neck, trochanter, shaft, and condyles. In the neck and trochanter separate measures were made in cortical and cancellous bone. The results were analyzed by means of correlation and regression analyses. There were significant negative linear correlations between the CT measures and age for all measures except for the isolated cancellous measures in the femoral neck and trochanter. Our results indicate that in the femoral neck and trochanter the cortical bone mass constitutes a substantial amount of the total bone mass. We conclude that, since bone strength to a large part is a function of the total bone mass, loss of cortical bone may be more important than loss of cancellous bone.