Improving the efficiency of methods for assessing bone tissue properties

The complexity of the tissue is mainly due to the fact that bone is the result of a permanent process of osteogenesis and bone resorption, and the balance between these two processes ensures the health of the tissue. This balance, as it has been shown, can be influenced by a very large num­ber of factors, and most evidence supports the im­por­tance and role of the hormonal factor as one of the main determinants in the development of osteoporosis. Along­side this, it is important to assess the influence that chro­nic medication, such as lipid-lowering medication can have on bone tissue, besides the hormonal factor. Os­teo­po­ro­sis, the main chronic pathology of bone tissue, is assessed from the perspective of bone mineral density, but this assessment cannot provide information on the cyto­ar­chi­tec­to­nics of bone tissue, which is particularly im­por­tant when talking about bone as a resistance struc­ture, since the main complication of osteo­po­ro­sis is the fracture produced on pathological bone. The mea­sure­ment of 2D T2-T2 molecular exchange maps al­lows the assessment of bone tissue cytoarchitectonics be­cause it offers the possibility to appreciate both the pores and their communication, thus providing a pic­ture of the resistance that a bone structure may have un­der the influence of hormonal factors, correlated or not with various medications that may influence the or­ga­nic matrix or inorganic component of bone tissue.