Preliminary study of slow and fast ultrasonic waves using MR images of trabecular bone phantom

Cancellous bone is a complex tissue that performs physiological and biomechanical functions in all vertebrates. It is made up of trabeculae that, from a simplified structural viewpoint, can be considered as plates and beams in a hyperstatic structure that change with time leading to osteoporosis. Several methods has been developed to study the trabecular bone microstructure among them is the Biot’s model which predicts the existence of two longitudinal waves in porous media; the slow and the fast waves, that can be related to porosity of the media. This paper is focused on the experimental detection of the two Biot’s waves of a trabecular bone phantom, consisting of a trabecular network of inorganic hydroxyapatite. Experimental measurements of both waves were performed using through transmission ultrasound. Results had shown clearly that the propagation of two waves propagation is transversal to the trabecular alignment. Otherwise the waves are overlapped and a single wave seems to be propagated. To validate these results, magnetic resonance images were acquired to assess the trabecular direction, and to assure that the pulses correspond to the slow and fast waves. This approach offers a methodology for non-invasive studies of trabecular bones.