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Crunching data to make weak bones strong
by Carol Menaker
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Joyce Keyak’s (B.S.’89 ME, Ph.D.’96 BioE) devotion to her work is balanced by a number of outside interests, including the care of Roika, her spirited Hungarian pointer, and seven curious tortoises who enjoy nibbling on the hibiscus that flourishes in her yard.
FRANCISCO CHANES PHOTO
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It’s the future of medicine. Imagine a surgeon viewing a three-dimensional computer model of a bone weakened by cancer or osteoporosis and treating the condition with minimally invasive surgery in an outpatient center. If Joyce Keyak (B.S.’89 ME, Ph.D.’96 BioE) has her way, the procedure will be headed for clinical trials on cancer patients in as little as one year, and her innovative research could improve the quality of life for hundreds of thousands suffering from bone-weakening conditions.
Keyak is associate professor of orthopedic surgery, biomedical engineering, and mechanical and aerospace engineering at UC Irvine. With her colleague and mentor Harry Skinner, professor and surgeon at UC Irvine Medical Center, Keyak has developed a technique that uses computed tomography (CT) scans and structural analysis to calculate how much force a bone can withstand. With such exacting measurements, physicians can pinpoint more precise diagnoses and treatments than ever before.
“Until now, the tools for evaluating hip strength in women at risk for osteoporosis provided only a two-dimensional view of bone density,” Keyak says. But low bone density, she adds, is only one risk factor.
“The current measurements don’t take into account other factors, such as the bone’s shape and size or the forces on the bone,” she explains. “With three-dimensional analysis, we can do a much better job of determining risk and identifying patients who need treatment.”
Keyak’s research on metastatic bone tumors is equally promising. The tools used to model bone strength and fracture risk can also be used to simulate surgery and calculate the resulting increase in bone strength. The surgery—a minimally invasive outpatient procedure—involves making a small incision, drilling a hole, removing the tumor, and injecting a specially designed medical cement to reinforce the bone. Recovery time and surgical risk are significantly reduced compared to current surgical methods.
The analyses, which require meticulous attention to detail, also have potential applications for improvements in prosthetic implant design and bone remodeling and may lead to new methods for preventing bone fracture. Keyak says the work is painstaking but rewarding.
“For every hour of lab experiments, there could be as many as 500 hours of analysis,” she says. “But my whole purpose is to get my research into the clinical arena so patients can actually benefit from it.”
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