Spatial distribution of acoustic and elastic properties of human femoral cortical bone

The purpose of this study is to quantify the spatial distribution of acoustic velocities and elastic properties (elastic constants) on Human femoral cortical bone. Four cross sections (average thickness of 2.09+/-0.27 mm) have been cut transversally between 40% and 70% of the total length and between them parallelepiped samples in each quadrant have been cut. Ultrasonic technique in transmission with immersion focused transducers at 5 MHz and contact transducers 2.25 MHz were used on the cross sections and parallelepiped samples, respectively. The first technique allows relative spatial distribution of velocities to be obtained, meanwhile the second technique allows the direct assessment of elastic constants. For both techniques, bulk velocities were found to be lower at the posterior side with an increase along the length (from 40% to 70% total length) (p < 0.05). Densities and elastic constants show equivalent pattern of variation. These variations are mainly due the cortical porosity related to vascularisation environment. The spatial distribution of velocities exhibits significant radial variation from the endosteal to the periosteal region. This is in agreement with variation of the porosity at that location. Same range of velocities was obtained with both techniques. The range of longitudinal velocities values varies from 3548 to 3967 m/s and between 18.5 and 33.1 GPa for the bulk velocities and axial elastic constants, respectively. Our results are within the range with those found in the literature. However, it must be noted that the range of acoustic and elastic properties variation is concerning the same bone. So, our new results show the ability of the technique to quantify accurately local variation of acoustic and elastic properties (within the section and along the length) of human cortical bone. Furthermore, our immersion technique could be used to assess the spatial distribution of the elastic constants with the knowledge of spatial distribution of densities.