Bone Fracture Detection by Electrical Bioimpedance: Measurements in Ex-Vivo Mammalian Femur

DR. ING. CARMELO FELICE; ING. ANTONIO DELL'OSA; DR. FERNANDO DOBARRO; ALBERTO CONCU

Joinville

Conferencia; 17th International Conference on Electrical Bioimpedance; 2019

International Society on Electrical Bio Impedance ISEBI

. To simulate a limb, two phantoms of bovine femurs (one with an intact bone and the other with a bone sawn in two) were constructed and non-invasive Elec-trical Impedance Spectroscopy measurements were taken on them in order to identify differences in their respective Cole Cole diagrams. Impedance spectros-copy was performed by a frequency sweep between 1 Hz and 65 kHz at a fixed current of 1 mA. The results obtained show wide differences in the Cole Cole di-agrams of both phantoms (intact and fractured bone), especially concerning the real component of the impedance, which was always lower in the fractured femur than the whole one around the bones? section corresponding to that of the lesion in both femurs. These superficial (non-invasive) measurements correspond to the base measurements of electrical impedance spectroscopy and they could, in turn, correspond to what occurs in mammals immediately after a fracture occurs, i.e. a dramatic increase in electrical conductivity due to the diffusion into the fracture site of more conductive materials such as the blood and the extravascular fluids.