Evaluating Haversian canal-to-osteon ratios for reconstructing bone remodelling activity: balancing precision and efficiency in data collection
5 affiliations
- 1School of Social Science, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD Australia
- 2School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD Australia
- 3Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD Australia
- 4School of Natural Sciences, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
- 5Earth, Life, Time Group, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
Abstract
Introduction: In cortical bone histology, the ratio of Haversian canal and secondary osteon areas reflects bone resorption and formation during metabolic events executed by Basic Multicellular Units (BMUs). Area data can be pooled where they are collected independently, and the ratio calculated from the mean of each measure. They can also be paired, where they are measured from the same secondary osteon at once and the mean of individual ratios is calculated. We evaluate the impact of pooling and pairing on the resulting ratio values and their interpretation of bone remodelling.
Materials and methods: Using both approaches, we calculated the area ratio of 551 Haversian canals and secondary osteons from measurements of existing midshaft femur histology slides. The sample represents n = 38 young and middle-aged females of different social backgrounds from a historical osteological collection. Univariate and bivariate statistics were used to compare and evaluate paired and pooled values and their differences.
Results: The pooled method usually returned a lower canal-to-osteon value than paired data across the whole sample, ages, and social groups. These methods differed in the ratios they produced, independently of the number of measurements per sample.
In conclusion: The pooling technique indicated the presence of thicker lamellar bone within secondary osteons, suggesting greater quantities of bone formed during BMU activity, than the paired technique results, which suggested less bone formed per BMU. While pooling offers efficiency in data collection and analysis, we show that paired data yield more biologically precise and analytically flexible results at an individual BMU level.
Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00774-026-01747-7.
Related
- Evaluation of collection efficiency and safety of a precise distention fluid collection device compared to traditional devices in hysteroscopic surgery.
- Fluoroscopy-Guided Colonoscopic Transanastomotic Drainage of a Delayed Presacral Collection After Rectal Cancer Surgery: A Case Report
- Postoperative epidural fluid collection mimicking epidural abscess: illustrative cases
- Vascular geometry and network topology reveal vascular remodelling beyond density measures across Chew grades in macular telangiectasia type 2
- Data Collection Methods, Training, and Perceived Health Information Quality Among Professionals in Three Ghanaian Hospitals: A Cross‐Sectional Study
BibTeX
@article{cooke2026evaluating,
title = {{Evaluating Haversian canal-to-osteon ratios for reconstructing bone remodelling activity: balancing precision and efficiency in data collection}},
author = {Karen M. Cooke and Isabella Pearce and R. Claire Aland and Julien Louys and Patrick Mahoney and Justyna J. Miszkiewicz},
journal = {Journal of Bone and Mineral Metabolism},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.1007/s00774-026-01747-7},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s00774-026-01747-7},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Evaluating Haversian canal-to-osteon ratios for reconstructing bone remodelling activity: balancing precision and efficiency in data collection
AU - Karen M. Cooke
AU - Isabella Pearce
AU - R. Claire Aland
AU - Julien Louys
AU - Patrick Mahoney
AU - Justyna J. Miszkiewicz
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/10
JO - Journal of Bone and Mineral Metabolism
DO - 10.1007/s00774-026-01747-7
UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00774-026-01747-7
AB - Introduction: In cortical bone histology, the ratio of Haversian canal and secondary osteon areas reflects bone resorption and formation during metabolic events executed by Basic Multicellular Units (BMUs). Area data can be pooled where they are collected independently, and the ratio calculated from the mean of each measure. They can also be paired, where they are measured from the same secondary osteon at once and the mean of individual ratios is calculated. We evaluate the impact of pooling and pairing on the resulting ratio values and their interpretation of bone remodelling. Materials and methods: Using both approaches, we calculated the area ratio of 551 Haversian canals and secondary osteons from measurements of existing midshaft femur histology slides. The sample represents n = 38 young and middle-aged females of different social backgrounds from a historical osteological collection. Univariate and bivariate statistics were used to compare and evaluate paired and pooled values and their differences. Results: The pooled method usually returned a lower canal-to-osteon value than paired data across the whole sample, ages, and social groups. These methods differed in the ratios they produced, independently of the number of measurements per sample. In conclusion: The pooling technique indicated the presence of thicker lamellar bone within secondary osteons, suggesting greater quantities of bone formed during BMU activity, than the paired technique results, which suggested less bone formed per BMU. While pooling offers efficiency in data collection and analysis, we show that paired data yield more biologically precise and analytically flexible results at an individual BMU level. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00774-026-01747-7.
SN - 0914-8779
SN - 1435-5604
ER -