Serum Protein-Based Indices for the Progression of Fracture Healing and Nonunion
Abstract
Medical Problem to Be Addressed: Fractures to the limbs are one of the most common injuries that service men and women will experience both during training and in combat. X-rays and verbal questions about how the injured bone feels (if there is pain and if the person can use the injured limb) are the current approaches used to follow the progress of bone healing. Failed healing as diagnosed by X-ray and pain is made many months after the biology of healing has actually failed. This means that if there was a tool to follow the biology of healing, diagnosis of failed healing could be made at a significantly earlier timepoint, leading to earlier intervention for failed healing and shortening the periods that patients are subjected to pain and disability. Rationale for Project: A few studies to date have shown that specific proteins associated with the various biological stages of fracture healing, are released from the fractured bone into the serum (blood) and assaying for their presence can be used to follow bone healing. This leads us to believe that we can successfully develop a serum protein based biological diagnostic to both follow the progression of fracture healing and identify failed healing at much earlier times than X-Rays.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1123948
Entities
People
- Louis Gerstenfeld
Organizations
- Boston University