METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ASSESSING THE STATE OF HEALING OF A FRACTURED LONG BONE

摘要

A method of assessing the state of healing of a fractured long bone in a limb, including the steps of: applying a known force to the limb; using vibration sensors attached on either side of the limb to produce output signals generated in response to the known force from the output signals of the vibration sensors; from the output signals, generating frequency domain waveforms for a) phase difference between vibration sensor output signals, b) coherence of the vibration sensor output signals, and c) cross-spectra of the vibration sensor output signals; identifying in-phase and the out-of-phase responses of the vibration sensors from phase differences in the phase difference waveform at frequencies corresponding to peaks in the cross-spectra waveform; verifying coherent modes from the magnitude of the coherence waveform; and generating bone healing data, including using the magnitude of the coherence waveform and the phase differences as weighting-functions, computing a healing index value representing the state of healing of the bone.