title: Ultrasound elastography assessment of bone/soft tissue interface.
abstract: We report on the use of elastographic imaging techniques to assess the bone/soft tissue interface, a region that has not been previously investigated but may provide important information about fracture and bone healing. The performance of axial strain elastograms and axial shear strain elastograms at the bone/soft tissue interface was studied ex vivo on intact and fractured canine and ovine tibias. Selected ex vivo results were corroborated on intact sheep tibias in vivo. The elastography results were statistically analyzed using elastographic image quality tools. The results of this study demonstrate distinct patterns in the distribution of the normalized local axial strains and axial shear strains at the bone/soft tissue interface with respect to the background soft tissue. They also show that the relative strength and distribution of the elastographic parameters change in the presence of a fracture and depend on the degree of misalignment between the fracture fragments. Thus, elastographic imaging modalities might be used in the future to obtain information regarding the integrity of bones and to assess the severity of fractures, alignment of bone fragments as well as to follow bone healing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77840, USA.
authors.forename: Biren J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Parmar
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Anuj
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chaudhry
authors.forename: Peer Shafeeq
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Shajudeen
authors.forename: Sanjay P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.forename: Bradley K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Weiner
authors.forename: Ennio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tasciotti
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Krouskop
authors.forename: Raffaella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Righetti
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002356:Cartilage / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D004285:Dogs; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D012756:Sheep; D013977:Tibia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*