Ultrasonic Guided Waves in Bone: A Decade of Advancement in Review

• Published in: IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control Vol. 69; no. 10; pp. 2875 - 2895
• Main Authors: Tran, Tho N. H. T., Le, Lawrence H., Ta, Dean
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.10.2022; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Acoustics; Axial transmission; Biological tissues; bone sonometry; Bones; Data acquisition; Frequency control; guided wave; Quality assessment; quantitative ultrasound (QUS); Receivers; Signal processing; Ultrasonic imaging; Ultrasonic variables measurement; Wave propagation; Waveforms
• ISSN: 0885-3010; 1525-8955
• DOI: 10.1109/TUFFC.2022.3197095

The use of guided wave ultrasonography as a means to assess cortical bone quality has been a significant practice in bone quantitative ultrasound for more than 20 years. In this article, the key developments within the technology of ultrasonic guided waves (UGW) in long bones during the past decade are documented. The covered topics include data acquisition configurations available for measuring bone guided waveforms, signal processing techniques applied to bone UGW, numerical modeling of ultrasonic wave propagation in cortical long bones, formulation of inverse approaches to extract bone properties from observed ultrasonic signals, and clinical studies to establish the technology's application and efficacy. The review concludes by highlighting specific challenging problems and future research directions. In general, the primary purpose of this work is to provide a comprehensive overview of bone guided-wave ultrasound, especially for newcomers to this scientific field.