Ultrasound Radiation Force for the Assessment of Bone Fracture Healing in Children: An In Vivo Pilot Study.

Author: Ghavami S1, Gregory A2, Webb J3, Bayat M4, Denis M5, Kumar V6, Milbrand TA7,8, Larson AN9, Fatemi M10, Alizad A11
Affiliation: <sup>1</sup>Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine &amp; Science, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. roudsari.seyed@mayo.edu. <sup>2</sup>Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine &amp; Science, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. gregory.adriana@mayo.edu. <sup>3</sup>Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine &amp; Science, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. webb.jeremy@mayo.edu. <sup>4</sup>Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine &amp; Science, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. mahdi.bayat@case.edu. <sup>5</sup>Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine &amp; Science, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. max_f_denis@hotmail.com. <sup>6</sup>Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine &amp; Science, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. kumar.viksit@mayo.edu. <sup>7</sup>Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine &amp; Science, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. Milbrandt.Todd@mayo.edu. <sup>8</sup>Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine &amp; Science, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. Milbrandt.Todd@mayo.edu. <sup>9</sup>Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine &amp; Science, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. Larson.Noelle@mayo.edu. <sup>10</sup>Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine &amp; Science, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. fatemi.mostafa@mayo.edu. <sup>11</sup>Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine &amp; Science, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. alizad.azra@mayo.edu.
Conference/Journal: Sensors (Basel).
Date published: 2019 Feb 24
Other: Volume ID: 19 , Issue ID: 4 , Special Notes: doi: 10.3390/s19040955. , Word Count: 210


Vibrational characteristics of bone are directly dependent on its physical properties. In this study, a vibrational method for bone evaluation is introduced. We propose a new type of quantitative vibro-acoustic method based on the acoustic radiation force of ultrasound for bone characterization in persons with fracture. Using this method, we excited the clavicle or ulna by an ultrasound radiation force pulse which induces vibrations in the bone, resulting in an acoustic wave that is measured by a hydrophone placed on the skin. The acoustic signals were used for wave velocity estimation based on a cross-correlation technique. To further separate different vibration characteristics, we adopted a variational mode decomposition technique to decompose the received signal into an ensemble of band-limited intrinsic mode functions, allowing analysis of the acoustic signals by their constitutive components. This prospective study included 15 patients: 12 with clavicle fractures and three with ulna fractures. Contralateral intact bones were used as controls. Statistical analysis demonstrated that fractured bones can be differentiated from intact ones with a detection probability of 80%. Additionally, we introduce a "healing factor" to quantify the bone healing progress which successfully tracked the progress of healing in 80% of the clavicle fractures in the study.

KEYWORDS: bone fracture; bone healing; ultrasound radiation force; variational mode decomposition

PMID: 30813465 DOI: 10.3390/s19040955