Theoretical and experimental study of attenuation in cancellous bone

TL;DR

This study introduces a novel photoacoustic differential attenuation spectrum method to analyze cancellous bone, providing a way to distinguish osteoporotic from normal bone and quantify bone density through theoretical and experimental approaches.

Contribution

The paper presents a new PA-DAS technique that isolates attenuation characteristics in cancellous bone, combining theoretical modeling with experimental validation on rabbit osteoporosis models.

Findings

PA-DAS can differentiate osteoporotic from normal bone

Quantifies attenuation of high and low frequency components

Enables non-invasive osteoporosis diagnosis

Abstract

Photoacoustic (PA) technology can provide information on both the physical structure and chemical composition of bone, showing great potential in bone assessment. However, due to the complex composition and porous structure of cancellous bone, the PA signals generated and propagated in cancellous bone are complex and difficult to be directly used in cancellous bone analysis. In this paper, a photoacoustic differential attenuation spectrum (PA-DAS) method is proposed. By eliminating the PA spectrum of the optical absorption sources, the propagation attenuation characteristics of cancellous bone are studied theoretically and experimentally. An analytical solution for the propagation attenuation of broadband ultrasound waves in cancellous bone is given by applying high-frequency and viscous corrections to Biot's theory. An experimental system of PA-DAS with an eccentric excitation differential detection system is established to obtain the PA-DAS of cancellous bone and its acoustic propagation characteristic on the rabbit osteoporosis model. The PA-DAS quantization parameter slope is further extracted to quantify the attenuation of high and low frequency components. The results show that the PA-DAS can distinguish osteoporotic bone from normal bone, enabling quantitative assessment of bone mineral density and the diagnosis of osteoporosis.