Mechanical Response Tissue Analyzer (MRTA)

Mere decades ago, you only knew you had osteoporosis when you fell and broke your hip. Fracture risk assessment has now entered the space age.

A team led by Dr. Charles Steele, of Stanford University, in California, first devised a way to analyze astronauts’ bone strength for NASA. They called this a Mechanical Response Tissue Analyzer (MRTA), since it used a low-frequency electromagnetic “shaking” motion to determine bone strength, rather than radiation.

The MRTA offered significant improvements over conventional diagnostics, including portability; but the technology lay dormant for years, since it was cumbersome and uncomfortable, and needed much refining to be used clinically. Enter Dr. Angela Cheung of the University Health Network (UHN), a group of several downtown Toronto research and teaching hospitals.

Traditional means of measuring bone density –through dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA), quantitative ultrasound (QUS), or quantitative computerized tomography (QCT) scanning – do not take into account other factors that might put people at risk of osteoporosis or fracture, such as the mineral composition and the resilience or elasticity of bone.

Head of the UHN’s Osteoporosis Program, a University of Toronto professor, and a practising doctor, Dr. Cheung realized that the MRTA offered better diagnostic potential than existing technologies.

“Up until now, bone density has been the gold standard for bone strength,” says Dr. Cheung. “But they’re not the same thing. The MRTA is the only machine that directly measures bone strength as opposed to density.”

So Dr. Cheung acquired one of the devices used by NASA, and for over five years has been fine-tuning the MRTA with her team to get greater clinical accuracy from the device. To streamline the analyzer, she contracted elements of the design to Toronto-based Cooler Solutions, a young and innovative industrial design company.

Patented and commercialized with help from the UHN’s Technology Development and Commercialization Office, the new MRTA will soon be undergoing clinical trials. It is for use on long bones, such as the tibia (the lower leg bone) and the ulna (the lower arm bone). While women are at greater risk for osteoporosis and fracture, particularly after menopause, the device can predict fracture risk equally well for men and women.

The UHN’s Technology Development and Commercialization Office is located in the MaRS Centre, part of a not-for-profit institution that encourages the commercialization of innovation. The name “MaRS” came originally from the phrase “Medical and Related Sciences.”

Further Reading

For more information on this technology, please contact:

Martin Haardt, PhD
Business Development Officer
University Health Network—
Technology Development and Commercialization Office
MaRS Centre, Heritage Building
101 College Street, Ste. 150
Toronto, ON M5G 1L7
Tel: (416) 581-7832
mhaardt@uhnresearch.ca

For more on the University Health Network, see: www.uhn.ca/

Cooler Solutions:
www.coolersolutionsinc.com/

The MaRS Centre:
www.marsdd.com/MaRS-Home.html