Amin Bilal, Elahi Muhammad Adnan, Shahzad Atif, Porter Emily, O'Halloran Martin
Electrical and Electronic Engineering, National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland.
Translational Medical Device Lab, National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland.
Biomed Phys Eng Express. 2019 Jan 7;5(2). doi: 10.1088/2057-1976/aaf210.
The dielectric properties are key parameters that quantify the interaction between electromagnetic waves and human biological tissues. In particular, the development of electromagnetic-based medical technologies rely on knowledge of the dielectric properties of bone, specifically for applications such as electrical stimulation and bone health monitoring. Electrical stimulation is used in clinics to promote the healing of bone fractures, treating non-unions, congenital pseudarthrosis, bone regeneration and during bone implant procedures. The response of the bone to any external electrical stimulation is governed by the dielectric properties of the bone, which vary with the applied frequency of the stimuli. Bone mineral density is considered a key indicator of osteoporosis diagnosis, and is assumed to be related to the dielectric properties of the bone. Therefore, dielectric properties of bones may potentially be used to diagnose osteoporosis. The bone dielectric properties can be assessed non-invasively for bone health monitoring. Several research studies have reported dielectric properties of cortical and trabecular bones in recent literature. Since dielectric properties of bone determine the response of the tissue to therapies, it is important to compile and analyze the reported dielectric data in order to have a thorough understanding of these properties. It is established from the literature that the low frequency (10 Hz-1 GHz) dielectric properties of bone are particularly important in diagnostic applications, as the correlation between the dielectric properties and bone mineral density is more significant than at higher frequencies. In this paper, the low frequency dielectric properties of the bone reported in the literature are compiled and quantitatively analysed. The results suggest that there is a significant inter- and intra-species variation in the reported dielectric data from human, bovine, porcine, and rat bone tissues. Moreover, the relationship between the dielectric properties and bone mineral density is inconsistent across the various studies, indicating that further research in this area is needed.
介电特性是量化电磁波与人体生物组织之间相互作用的关键参数。特别是，基于电磁的医学技术的发展依赖于对骨骼介电特性的了解，特别是在电刺激和骨骼健康监测等应用中。电刺激在临床上用于促进骨折愈合、治疗骨不连、先天性假关节、骨再生以及骨植入手术过程中。骨骼对任何外部电刺激的反应由骨骼的介电特性决定，而介电特性会随刺激的施加频率而变化。骨矿物质密度被认为是骨质疏松症诊断的关键指标，并且被假定与骨骼的介电特性有关。因此，骨骼的介电特性可能潜在地用于诊断骨质疏松症。骨骼介电特性可以通过非侵入性方式进行评估以监测骨骼健康。最近的文献中有几项研究报告了皮质骨和小梁骨的介电特性。由于骨骼的介电特性决定了组织对治疗的反应，因此汇编和分析报告的介电数据以全面了解这些特性非常重要。从文献中可以确定，骨骼的低频（10Hz - 1GHz）介电特性在诊断应用中尤为重要，因为介电特性与骨矿物质密度之间的相关性在低频比高频时更为显著。在本文中，对文献中报道的骨骼低频介电特性进行了汇编和定量分析。结果表明，来自人类、牛、猪和大鼠骨组织的报告介电数据存在显著的种间和种内差异。此外，介电特性与骨矿物质密度之间的关系在各种研究中并不一致，这表明该领域需要进一步研究。
