Osteoporosis is one of the most common skeletal disorders characterized by reduced bone mass, deterioration of microstructures, and cortical thinning, leading to high fracture risks. Quantitative ultrasound is a promising diagnostic technology for osteoporosis screening and bone fracture risk prediction. The attractions of bone quantitative ultrasound for medical use include no ionizing radiation exposure, cost effectiveness, high portability, and thus better access for patients especially in remote areas. Noninvasive characterization of cortical long bones using axial transmission ultrasound has great potential for osteoporotic cortical thinning assessment. However, the soft tissue-bone coupling effect remains to be a challenge and an ambiguity especially in vivo. We previously studied the ultrasonic wave propagation in a cortical bone plate with and without overlying soft tissues (Tran et al. Analysis of ultrasonic waves propagating in a bone plate over a water half-space with and without overlying soft tissue. Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, volume 39, pages 2422-2430, 2013).
In this research, the influence of overlying tissue layer with a varying thickness is further investigated experimentally and numerically. This work employs advanced signal processing approaches and semi-analytical finite element modeling to analyze the ex-vivo measured ultrasonic signals and to interpret the wave propagation behaviors. The research findings not only expand the understanding of ultrasound physics but also provide good insights to facilitate the technical development and clinical application of quantitative ultrasound in routine healthcare services for bone health assessment.
This study has recently been published by theIEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Controljournal in January 2022 under the title “Analysis of ultrasonic guided wave propagation in multi-layered bone structure with varying soft-tissue thickness in view of cortical bone characterization”. Postdoctoral Fellow Tho N.H.T. Tran is the first author. Professor Lawrence H. Le and Professor Dean Ta are the corresponding authors. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, the Program of Shanghai Academic Research Leader, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.(Tho N.H.T. Tran, Lawrence H. Le*, and Dean Ta*, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 69, 147-155, 2022)
