Acoustic emission signals can discriminate between compressive bone fractures and tensile ligament injuries in the spine during dynamic loading

Van Toen, C.; Street, J.; Oxland, T. R.; Cripton, P. A.

Affiliations

¹Orthopaedic and Injury Biomechanics Group, Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Orthopaedics, University of British Columbia, 818 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V5Z 1M9, Canada

²Combined Neurosurgical and Orthopaedic Spine Program, Department of Orthopaedics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

³International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Abstract and keywords

Acoustic emission (AE) sensors are a reliable tool in detecting fracture; however they have not been used to differentiate between compressive osseous and tensile ligamentous failures in the spine. This study evaluated the effectiveness of AE data in detecting the time of injury of ligamentum flavum (LF) and vertebral body (VB) specimens tested in tension and compression, respectively, and in differentiating between these failures. AE signals were collected while LF (n=7) and VB (n=7) specimens from human cadavers were tested in tension and compression (0.4 m/s), respectively. Times of injury (time of peak AE amplitude) were compared to those using traditional methods (VB: time of peak force, LF: visual evidence in high speed video). Peak AE signal amplitudes and frequencies (using Fourier and wavelet transformations) for the LF and VB specimens were compared. In each group, six specimens failed (VB, fracture; LF, periosteal stripping or attenuation) and one did not. Time of injury using AE signals for VB and LF specimens produced average absolute differences to traditional methods of 0.7 (SD=0.2) ms and 2.4 (SD=1.5) ms (representing 14% and 20% of the average loading time), respectively. AE signals from VB fractures had higher amplitudes and frequencies than those from LF failures (average peak amplitude 87.7 (SD=6.9) dB vs. 71.8 (SD=9.8) dB for the inferior sensor, p<0.05; median characteristic frequency from the inferior sensor 97 (interquartile range, IQR, 41) kHz vs. 31 (IQR 2) kHz, p<0.05). These findings demonstrate that AE signals could be used to delineate complex failures of the spine.

Keywords: Vertebral fracture; Spine; Biomechanics; Ligament; Acoustic emission

Links

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2012.03.025

PubMed: 22521239

History

Accepted: 2012-03-27

Online: 2012-04-19

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Cited By (11)

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2014	Shridharani JK, Schmidt AL, Cox CA, Bigler BR, Knight AE, Bass CRD. Dynamic failure localization in spinal specimens using acoustic emissions. In: Proceedings of the 2014 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 10-12, 2014; Berlin, Germany.166-175.
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2016	Shridharani JK, Bigler BR, Cox CA, Ortiz‐Paparoni MA, Bass CRD. Sensitive injury detection in the cervical spine using acoustic emission and continuous wavelet transform. In: Proceedings of the 2016 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 14-16, 2016; Malaga, Spain.131-142.
2019	Robinson DL, Tse KM, Franklyn M, Zhang J, Ackland D, Lee PVS. Cortical and trabecular bone fracture characterisation in the vertebral body using acoustic emission. Ann Biomed Eng. December 2019;47(12):2384-2401.
2016	Yoganandan N, Banerjee A, Hsu F-C, Bass CR, Voo L, Pintar FA, Gayzik FS. Deriving injury risk curves using survival analysis from biomechanical experiments. J Biomech. October 3, 2016;49(14):3260-3267.
2020	Ott K, Drewry D III, Luongo M, Andrist J, Armiger R, Titus J, Demetropoulos C. Comparison of human surrogate responses in underbody blast loading conditions. J Biomech Eng. September 2020;142(9):091010.
2021	Robinson DL, Tse KM, Franklyn M, Zhang J, Fernandez JW, Ackland DC, Lee PVS. Specimen-specific fracture risk curves of lumbar vertebrae under dynamic axial compression. J Mech Behav Biomed Mater. June 2021;118:104457.
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