Theoretical observation of waves in cancellous bone

Abstract

Poroelasticity theory has been widely used for detecting cancellous bone deterioration because of the safe use for humans. The tortuosity itself is an important indicator for ultrasound detection for bone diseases. The transport properties of cancellous bone are also important in bone mechanotransduction. In this paper, two important factors, the wave velocity and attenuation are examined for permeability (or tortuosity). The theoretical calculation for the relationship between the wave velocity (and attenuation) and permeability (or tortuosity) for cancellous bone is shown in this study. It is found that the wave along the solid phase (trabecular struts) is influenced not by tortuosity, but the wave along the fluid wave (bone fluid phase) is affected by tortuosity significantly. However, the attenuation is different that the attenuation of a fast wave has less influence than that of a slow wave because the slow wave is observed by the relative motion between the solid and fluid phases.