Distribution of Young's modulus in the cancellous bone of the proximal canine tibia.

Canine cancellous bone is used as a model for human bone in experimental orthopedic research, including models of total knee arthroplasty. Depth-force measurements produced by small-diameter indentation testing were used to derive the variation of Young's modulus over the transverse cross-sectional surface at three levels within the proximal canine tibia. At the most proximal section the presence of lateral and medial peaks of equal modulus (approximately 1100 MPa) was found. Modulus averages for the three resection levels revealed a trend of distally decreasing values, from 692 MPa proximally to 417 MPa distally. Average regional modulus values for the canine tibia were 50-75% higher than previously reported for the tibia of healthy young adult humans, although the local maxima were only 5-20% greater in canines.