Site-specific Quantification of Bone Quality using Highly Nonlinear Solitary Waves

TL;DR

This study introduces a novel nonlinear solitary wave sensor for site-specific, radiation-free assessment of bone quality, demonstrating its potential for clinical osteoporosis diagnosis through experiments on foam models and human cadaveric femurs.

Contribution

The paper presents a new granular crystal sensor utilizing solitary waves for accurate, site-specific bone quality measurement, advancing non-invasive osteoporosis diagnostics.

Findings

Sensor detects differences in bone quality effectively.

Accurate measurements correlate with DEXA results.

Potential for clinical application without radiation exposure.

Abstract

Osteoporosis is a well recognized problem affecting millions of individuals worldwide. Consequently, the need to effectively, efficiently, and affordably diagnose and identify those at risk is essential; moreover, site-specific assessment of bone quality is necessary, not only in the process of risk assessment, but may also be desirable for other applications. The present study evaluated a new one-dimensional granular crystal sensor, composed of a tightly packed chain of beads under Hertzian contact interaction, representing the most suitable fundamental component for solitary wave generation and propagation. First, the sensitivity of the novel sensor was tested using densities of rigid polyurethane foam, representing clinical bone quality ranging from healthy, to severely osteoporotic. Once the relationship between the signal response and known densities was established, the sensor was used to measure several sites located in the proximal femur of ten human cadaveric specimens. The accuracy of the model was then further investigated, using measurements of bone quality from the same cadaveric specimens, independently, using DEXA. The results indicate not only that the novel technique is capable of detecting differences in bone quality, but that the ability to measure site-specific properties without exposure to radiation, has the potential to be further developed for clinical applications.