Computational simulations of time of flight and attenuation of first arriving signal from healing process of diaphyseal femur fractures.

Abstract

Quantitative Ultrasound (QUS) has been proposed to evaluate structural conditions from bone tissue in a non-invasive way. These techniques are based on the fact that the ultrasound propagation depends directly of tissues structures, so, they carry information about them. Based on these arguments, the aim of this work was to estimate the time-of-flight (TOF) and attenuation of The first arriving signal (FAS) using computational simulations (Wave2000® CyberLogic, inc., NY, EUA) in an axial transmission model in different kinds of fracture, during the healing process. In this work we used QUS techniques to analyze the fracture healing process. The FAS has been chosen because it does not suffer interference of other waves since it is the first signal to arrive at the receiver. TOF increases immediately after bone fracture. When bone tissue starts to consolidate, TOF decreases and stabilizes with the same value of the intact bone. Attenuation is bigger in oblique and spiculate fracture than transversal ones for the same stage which suggests that attenuation is sensitive to the kind of fracture. Other studies are being conducted to clarify this point. © 2013 Acoustical Society of America.