Bone micro-architecture, estimated bone strength, and the muscle-bone interaction in elite athletes: An HR-pQCT study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Athletes participating in sports characterized by specific loading modalities have exhibited different levels of augmentation of bone properties; however, the extent to which these loading environments affect bone micro-architecture and estimated bone strength (i.e., bone quality) remains unclear. Furthermore, the relative role of impact loading versus loading due to muscle forces in determining bone properties is confounded. The objectives of this study were 1) to examine the role of impact loading on bone quality of the distal radius and distal tibia in elite athletes, as determined by high resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) and finite element analysis (FEA), and 2) to investigate the relationship between bone quality and muscle strength in elite athletes. Ninety-five females (n=59) and males (n=36) between the ages of 16-30 years participated in the study. Participants included alpine skiers (high-impact), soccer players (moderate impact), swimmers (low-impact), and non-athletic controls. All group comparisons were made after accounting for age, height, and body mass. As expected, minimal differences in HR-pQCT parameters across groups were observed at the non weight-bearing distal radius. At the weight-bearing distal tibia, female alpine skiers and soccer players had significantly higher bone density, cortical thickness, and failure load (i.e., bone strength (N) in compression estimated by FEA) than swimmers (p<0.05). Female alpine skiers also had lower trabecular separation than swimmers and controls. Male alpine skiers had 20% higher trabecular bone mineral density than swimmers, and male soccer players exhibited 22% higher trabecular number than swimmers at the distal tibia (p<0.05). Male alpine skiers and soccer players had 28-38% higher failure load at the distal tibia than swimmers. No differences in bone parameters were observed between swimmers and controls for either sex at either site. Both muscle strength and sporting activity were predictors of failure load at the distal tibia in the female cohort. Sporting activity, but not muscle strength, was a significant predictor of failure load in the male cohort at both the radius and tibia. This data suggests that impact loading in sporting activity is highly associated with bone quality. Longitudinal and interventional studies are required to further clarify the muscle-bone interaction.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".