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Biomechanics of the musculo-skeletal system
Pergamon
BOOK REVIEWS
BONE STRUCTURE
AND REMODELING
Edited by A. Odgaard and H. Weinans, World Scientific Publishing Co., Suite 1B. 1060 Main St. River Edge NJ 07661, 1995, $84.00,257 pp., ISBN: 981-02-2190-8 This physically attractive little book is the proceedings volume of a symposium having the same title, held at the Second World Conaress of Biomechanics in Amsterdam, 10-15 Julv 1994. The symposium was organized by the book’s editors, A. Odgaard and H. Weinans; it consisted of 7 sessions containing 32 papers. An introduction and 21 of these papers constitute the 22 chapters of this book. The goal of the symposium and its proceedings was to ‘achieve a better integration between different disciplines working to gain an understanding of bone structure. More specifically, the emphasis was on how bone adapts its structure to mechanical demands. The book does strive to represent the perspectives of biologists, but most of the authors are engineering-oriented. While this is to be expected in the context of a biomechanics congress, this book documents the fact that we remain far short of the degree of integration which is needed among biologists, clinicians, and engineers. In my opinion, biomechanics should be viewed as a subdiscipline of biology, and not the other way around. I do not think the editors would disagree with this, but in fact the book clearly illustrates the difficulty of actually integrating the efforts of bone biologists and mechanicians, as opposed to just having them talk with one another. This is manifest in the opening chapters by John Currey and Rik Huiskes which, while good-humored in spirit and delightfully entertaining to read, are essentially polar viewpoints of attempts to formulate mathematically Wolff’s law. The next chapter is a handy review of bone remodeling in relation to structure by Eriksen and Langdahl. This is followed by a series of chapters describing the well-known (for the most part) experimental approaches of several teams of investigators. These include Hollister and Goldstein, Turner and Forwood, Rubin and McLeod, and Katz and Meunier. Similarly, there are chapters updating the analytical models of Mullender and Huiskes, Oden and Hart, van der Meulen et al., Prendergast and Huiskes, Jacobs et al., Fyhrie et al., and Luo, Cowin et al. Other papers describe in vitro responses of osteocytes to mechanical loading, the effects of electrical fields on fracture healing in rats, tensile strains in human incus bones, and further refinements of mathematical representations of trabecular bone structure and
BIOMECHANICS
adaptation. Generally speaking, the contributions are more in the nature of updates and reviews than brand new, original works. Returning to the goal of ‘integration’, it is the nature of a ‘proceedings’ that the chapters represent the individual efforts of their authors. If a synthesis is to be achieved, it must come at the hands of the editors. In this case,while the editors discuss the problems we face in integrating the efforts of the symposium’s participants, and cite several interesting paradigms For thinking about this problem, they have not attempted to synthesize the book’s contents. Doing so would not have been easy. but it would have added a great deal to the book’s value. However, even without such a synthesis, this book captures much of the current research activity and debate about bone’s putative ability to adapt to mechanical loading. It would be an excellent reader for a graduate seminar or a course in bone physiology and mechanics, and it is a good reference for the bookshelves of those directly or indirectly engaged in this fkld ol' research. Biased as it is toward the engineering perspective, If used as a class or seminar reader, the book should be balanced by more biologically-oriented material. Personally, without wishing to slight the efforts of Odgaard and Weinans, who organized an outstanding symposium at the last world congress, 1 hope that the next congress will do whatever is necessary to attract more biologists. Even more importantly, I hope that many more biomechanicians will do as one of the authors in this book (a ‘hard-core’, classically-trained engineer at that!) has done, and spend a sabbatical in a bone biology laboratory. When the John Curreys and Rik Huiskes (and Elisabeth Burgers) actually work together every day in the lab, then we will really begin to ‘achieve a better integration between different disciplines’ working to gain an understanding of bone structure. R. Bruce Martin Orthopaedic Research Uninersity of Cnl+mitr.
OF THE MUSCULO-SKELETAL
f&oratory (‘.A. I;.S.:~.
SYSTEM
Edited by Benno M. Nigg and Walter Herzog Chichester, U.K.,
1994, 578
This is a book for engineering students, physicists, kinesiologists and researchers in biomechanics with a basic background in mathematics and mechanics. Drawing on years of experience in one of North America’s most active biomechanics research laboratories, the five authors and seven co-authors illustrate their points with a variety of fresh examples of musculoskeletal systern mechanics in humans and cat. The first chapter contains an 1243 Iw 29-9-I
pp., ISBN: o-471-944440 entertaining review of the history of biomechanics and briefly summarizes basic mechanical principles. The next chapter covers the biomechanical aspects of the morphology, histoIogy and mechanics of bone, cartilage, tendon, and muscle. The third chapter covers the principles of measuring forces, accelerations, kinematics, myoelectric signals, in oiuo strains, and inertial parameters. Finally, the last chapter addresses mathemsticd!
1244
Book Reviews
modeling in terms of free-body diagrams, determinate and indeterminate systems, energy considerations and simulation techniques. The editors have achieved a lively and entertaining writing style. One hardly notices the minor grammatical and linguistic errors, and unnecessary verbiage in this first edition. The illustrations, save one or two, are excellent. The biomaterials chapter is comprehensive with a good section on muscle mechanics. It would be further strengthened by considering the mechanics of contracting muscle under imposed lengthening, because that is the condition under which muscle develops the most force and is therefore most injury-prone. The chapter on measurement techniques is a helpful review; examples illustrating frequency-domain analyses and filtering methods might be helpful. With its nearly 50 worked examples, ranging from the energetics of muscle contraction to the stability of a somersault, the modeling chapter is the most interesting in the book. Pages 369-400 were inexplicably missing in my copy of the book, exactly where I hoped to be reminded of the wisdom of using the simplest possible model to capture the essence of system behavior when tackling a new problem, ad modum T. A. McMahon. Thwarted,
I enjoyed the thought that the omission is evidence of amnesia caused by the bookbinder running out for a quick lunchtime pint at the pub in the bucolic English village where the book was printed. The modeling chapter reflects the authors’ experienced insights into impact forces during running and jumping; the omission of Zajac’s elegant analyses of jumping does seem incongruous. The formulations for multi-link models of the upright human will be useful to students, although techniques for analyzing the contributions of the sensorimotor control systems responsible for maintaining human balance are lacking. Finally, throughout the book a systematic consideration of how old age affects musculoskeletal system properties and behavior would be appropriate given our growing elderly populations. Students will find this an attractive, interesting and stimulating book. Because of its many examples and depth in selected areas, it will also complement the library of anyone interested in musculoskeletal system research or performance. James A. Ashton-Miller The
University Ann Arbor,
of Michigan Ml, U.S.A.
BOOK REVIEWS
BONE STRUCTURE
AND REMODELING
Edited by A. Odgaard and H. Weinans, World Scientific Publishing Co., Suite 1B. 1060 Main St. River Edge NJ 07661, 1995, $84.00,257 pp., ISBN: 981-02-2190-8 This physically attractive little book is the proceedings volume of a symposium having the same title, held at the Second World Conaress of Biomechanics in Amsterdam, 10-15 Julv 1994. The symposium was organized by the book’s editors, A. Odgaard and H. Weinans; it consisted of 7 sessions containing 32 papers. An introduction and 21 of these papers constitute the 22 chapters of this book. The goal of the symposium and its proceedings was to ‘achieve a better integration between different disciplines working to gain an understanding of bone structure. More specifically, the emphasis was on how bone adapts its structure to mechanical demands. The book does strive to represent the perspectives of biologists, but most of the authors are engineering-oriented. While this is to be expected in the context of a biomechanics congress, this book documents the fact that we remain far short of the degree of integration which is needed among biologists, clinicians, and engineers. In my opinion, biomechanics should be viewed as a subdiscipline of biology, and not the other way around. I do not think the editors would disagree with this, but in fact the book clearly illustrates the difficulty of actually integrating the efforts of bone biologists and mechanicians, as opposed to just having them talk with one another. This is manifest in the opening chapters by John Currey and Rik Huiskes which, while good-humored in spirit and delightfully entertaining to read, are essentially polar viewpoints of attempts to formulate mathematically Wolff’s law. The next chapter is a handy review of bone remodeling in relation to structure by Eriksen and Langdahl. This is followed by a series of chapters describing the well-known (for the most part) experimental approaches of several teams of investigators. These include Hollister and Goldstein, Turner and Forwood, Rubin and McLeod, and Katz and Meunier. Similarly, there are chapters updating the analytical models of Mullender and Huiskes, Oden and Hart, van der Meulen et al., Prendergast and Huiskes, Jacobs et al., Fyhrie et al., and Luo, Cowin et al. Other papers describe in vitro responses of osteocytes to mechanical loading, the effects of electrical fields on fracture healing in rats, tensile strains in human incus bones, and further refinements of mathematical representations of trabecular bone structure and
BIOMECHANICS
adaptation. Generally speaking, the contributions are more in the nature of updates and reviews than brand new, original works. Returning to the goal of ‘integration’, it is the nature of a ‘proceedings’ that the chapters represent the individual efforts of their authors. If a synthesis is to be achieved, it must come at the hands of the editors. In this case,while the editors discuss the problems we face in integrating the efforts of the symposium’s participants, and cite several interesting paradigms For thinking about this problem, they have not attempted to synthesize the book’s contents. Doing so would not have been easy. but it would have added a great deal to the book’s value. However, even without such a synthesis, this book captures much of the current research activity and debate about bone’s putative ability to adapt to mechanical loading. It would be an excellent reader for a graduate seminar or a course in bone physiology and mechanics, and it is a good reference for the bookshelves of those directly or indirectly engaged in this fkld ol' research. Biased as it is toward the engineering perspective, If used as a class or seminar reader, the book should be balanced by more biologically-oriented material. Personally, without wishing to slight the efforts of Odgaard and Weinans, who organized an outstanding symposium at the last world congress, 1 hope that the next congress will do whatever is necessary to attract more biologists. Even more importantly, I hope that many more biomechanicians will do as one of the authors in this book (a ‘hard-core’, classically-trained engineer at that!) has done, and spend a sabbatical in a bone biology laboratory. When the John Curreys and Rik Huiskes (and Elisabeth Burgers) actually work together every day in the lab, then we will really begin to ‘achieve a better integration between different disciplines’ working to gain an understanding of bone structure. R. Bruce Martin Orthopaedic Research Uninersity of Cnl+mitr.
OF THE MUSCULO-SKELETAL
f&oratory (‘.A. I;.S.:~.
SYSTEM
Edited by Benno M. Nigg and Walter Herzog Chichester, U.K.,
1994, 578
This is a book for engineering students, physicists, kinesiologists and researchers in biomechanics with a basic background in mathematics and mechanics. Drawing on years of experience in one of North America’s most active biomechanics research laboratories, the five authors and seven co-authors illustrate their points with a variety of fresh examples of musculoskeletal systern mechanics in humans and cat. The first chapter contains an 1243 Iw 29-9-I
pp., ISBN: o-471-944440 entertaining review of the history of biomechanics and briefly summarizes basic mechanical principles. The next chapter covers the biomechanical aspects of the morphology, histoIogy and mechanics of bone, cartilage, tendon, and muscle. The third chapter covers the principles of measuring forces, accelerations, kinematics, myoelectric signals, in oiuo strains, and inertial parameters. Finally, the last chapter addresses mathemsticd!
1244
Book Reviews
modeling in terms of free-body diagrams, determinate and indeterminate systems, energy considerations and simulation techniques. The editors have achieved a lively and entertaining writing style. One hardly notices the minor grammatical and linguistic errors, and unnecessary verbiage in this first edition. The illustrations, save one or two, are excellent. The biomaterials chapter is comprehensive with a good section on muscle mechanics. It would be further strengthened by considering the mechanics of contracting muscle under imposed lengthening, because that is the condition under which muscle develops the most force and is therefore most injury-prone. The chapter on measurement techniques is a helpful review; examples illustrating frequency-domain analyses and filtering methods might be helpful. With its nearly 50 worked examples, ranging from the energetics of muscle contraction to the stability of a somersault, the modeling chapter is the most interesting in the book. Pages 369-400 were inexplicably missing in my copy of the book, exactly where I hoped to be reminded of the wisdom of using the simplest possible model to capture the essence of system behavior when tackling a new problem, ad modum T. A. McMahon. Thwarted,
I enjoyed the thought that the omission is evidence of amnesia caused by the bookbinder running out for a quick lunchtime pint at the pub in the bucolic English village where the book was printed. The modeling chapter reflects the authors’ experienced insights into impact forces during running and jumping; the omission of Zajac’s elegant analyses of jumping does seem incongruous. The formulations for multi-link models of the upright human will be useful to students, although techniques for analyzing the contributions of the sensorimotor control systems responsible for maintaining human balance are lacking. Finally, throughout the book a systematic consideration of how old age affects musculoskeletal system properties and behavior would be appropriate given our growing elderly populations. Students will find this an attractive, interesting and stimulating book. Because of its many examples and depth in selected areas, it will also complement the library of anyone interested in musculoskeletal system research or performance. James A. Ashton-Miller The
University Ann Arbor,
of Michigan Ml, U.S.A.