Question

. A 75-year-old woman and her 9-year-old granddaughter were in a car accident in which both sustained trauma to the chest while seated next to each other. X-ray images showed that the grandmother had several fractured ribs, but her granddaughter had none. Explain those different findings.

Answer 1

The finding is expected. This is due to older people having a very depleted amount of proteins and calcium which affects their bone density.

Aged people have a large amount of osteoclasts which is responsible for the the breakdown of bone for repairs and remodification which poses a great risk for decreased and weakened bones.

The 9 yr old grand daughter however has large amounts of osteoblasts which help in bone production and translates to stronger bones.

This features and findings are the assumed and likely reasons why the 75yr old woman had fractures and the 9 yr old grand daughter suffered none.