Preliminary study of Pseudoarthrosis ultrasonic characterization

Pseudoarthosis is a consequence of a failure in bone fracture healing process, resulting in a non-union and relative motion between fragments. The evolution of fracture consolidation and the diagnosis of pseudoarthrosis have often a follow-up with conventional X-rays exams. Quantitative ultrasound (US) characterization has the advantage of being a non-ionizing energy and of low cost. A pulse-echo substitution method to characterize biological tissues by backscattered US was implemented. Pseudoarthrosis characterization was made by parameters Apparent Integrated Backscatter - AIB, Frequency Slope Apparent Backscatter - FSAB and Time Slope Apparent Backscatter - TSAB. Initials results have shown that parameters AIB and FSAB were able to differentiate normal from pseudoarthrotic tissues with statistical significance. Additional experiments with a greater number of samples are to be made, as well as some methodological adjustments aiming in vivo applications.