Electromagnetic bone-assessment and treatment: apparatus and method

Abstract

Non-invasive quantitative in-vivo electromagnetic evaluation of bone is performed by subjecting bone to an electrical excitation waveform supplied to a single magnetic field coil near the skin of a bony member, and involving a repetitive finite duration signal consisting of plural frequencies that are in the range 0 Hz-200 MHz. Signal-processing of a bone-current response signal and a bone-voltage response signal is operative to sequentially average the most recently received given number of successive bone-current and bone-voltage response signals to obtain an averaged per-pulse bone-current signal and an averaged per-pulse bone-voltage signal, and to produce their associated Fourier transforms. These Fourier transforms are further processed to obtain the inductively determined frequency-dependent bone-admittance function. A neural network, configured to generate an estimate of one or more of the desired bone-related quantities, is connected for response to the bone-admittance function, whereby to generate the indicated estimates of bone status, namely, bone-density, bone-architecture, bone-strength and bone-fracture risk. In another embodiment, a stochastic electromagnetic field generated by a single magnetic field coil is used to therapeutically treat living tissue in vivo.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.