Microstructural characterization of trabecular bone using ultrasonic backscattering and diffusion parameters

Finite differences time domain methods were utilized to simulate ultrasound propagation and scattering in anisotropic trabecular bone structures obtained from high resolution Computed Tomography (CT). The backscattered signals were collected and the incoherent contribution was extracted. The diffusion constant was calculated for propagations along and across the main direction of anisotropy, and was used to characterize the anisotropy of the trabecular microstructures. In anisotropic structures, the diffusion constant was significantly different in both directions, and the anisotropy of the diffusion constant was strongly correlated to the structural anisotropy measured on the CT images. These results indicate that metrics based on diffusion can be used to quantify the anisotropy of complex structures such as trabecular bone.