Agnollitto Paulo Moraes, de Araújo Braz Guilherme, Spirlandeli Adriano Levi, de Paula Francisco José Albuquerque, Carneiro Antonio Adilton Oliveira, Nogueira-Barbosa Marcello Henrique
Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
Ribeirão Preto Medical School Musculoskeletal Imaging Research Laboratory, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
Quant Imaging Med Surg. 2021 Feb;11(2):586-596. doi: 10.21037/qims-20-610.
Osteoporosis is a highly prevalent multifactorial osteometabolic disease, classically diagnosed, , by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). This study evaluated osteoporosis, , using vibro-acoustography (VA), an elastographic technique based on ultrasound radiation force.
Three groups of mice femurs were used: (I) control group (CG), (II) osteoporosis group (OG) and (III) treated osteoporosis group (TOG), in which the animals received pamidronate, an antiresorptive drug. Evaluation was performed in an acoustic tank, using two high frequency focused beams produced by a confocal ultrasonic transducer. A hydrophone registered the low frequency acoustic response (AR) of bone samples. We used micro-computed tomography (microCT) as the reference standard and evaluated the correlation between VA and microCT parameters.
The spectral analyses of the ARs with estimated area under the curve (AUC) values (mean; st. dev.) were, respectively, 1.29e and 9.32e for the CG, 3.25e and 2.16e for the OG, and 1.50e and 8.37e for the TOG. VA differentiated the experimental groups (P<0.01) and the results were reproducible [interclass correlation coefficient (ICC): 0.43 (95% CI: 0.15-0.71)]. There was also a statistically significant association between VA and microCT connectivity (Conn.) (r=0.80; P<0.01) and connectivity density (Conn. D) (r=0.76; P<0.01).
These results encourage further studies aimed at evaluating the potential use of VA for the diagnosis of osteoporosis as a relatively low-cost and radiation-free alternative to DXA.
骨质疏松症是一种高度常见的多因素骨代谢疾病，传统上通过双能X线吸收法（DXA）进行诊断。本研究使用振动声成像（VA）对骨质疏松症进行评估，VA是一种基于超声辐射力的弹性成像技术。
使用三组小鼠股骨：（I）对照组（CG），（II）骨质疏松症组（OG）和（III）骨质疏松症治疗组（TOG），其中动物接受抗吸收药物帕米膦酸盐治疗。在声学水箱中进行评估，使用共聚焦超声换能器产生的两个高频聚焦束。水听器记录骨样本的低频声学响应（AR）。我们使用微型计算机断层扫描（microCT）作为参考标准，并评估VA与microCT参数之间的相关性。
AR的光谱分析以及曲线下估计面积（AUC）值（平均值；标准差），CG组分别为1.29e和9.32e，OG组为3.25e和2.16e，TOG组为1.50e和8.37e。VA区分了实验组（P<0.01），结果具有可重复性[组内相关系数（ICC）：0.43（95%CI：0.15-0.71）]。VA与microCT连通性（Conn.）（r=0.80；P<0.01）和连通性密度（Conn.D）（r=0.76；P<0.01）之间也存在统计学上的显著关联。
这些结果鼓励进一步开展研究，旨在评估VA作为一种相对低成本且无辐射的DXA替代方法用于骨质疏松症诊断的潜在用途。
