Silvia De Santis1,2, Mauro Rebuzzi2, Giulia Di Pietro1, Bruno Maraviglia3,4, Silvia Capuani2
1Physics Department Sapienza University Rome, Rome, Italy; 2CNR-INFM SOFT, Physics Department Sapienza University Rome, Rome, Italy; 3MARBIlab Enrico Fermi Center, Rome, Italy; 4Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy
In porous systems such spongy-bone, characterized by strongly magnetic-susceptibility differences between trabecular-bone and bone-marrow, internal gradient Gi can be extracted from the SE decay. Aims of this work were: 1) to evaluate the Gi of the spongy-bone in-vitro, in order to relate this quantity with trabecular-bone properties; 2) to assess, in-vivo, the potential ability of Gi to evaluate the spongy-bone status when applied to human calcanei. Our results indicate Gi as a potential diagnostic marker of osteoporosis. In fact the in-vitro and in-vivo results demonstrate that Gi values depend on both solid trabecular bone characteristics and liquid interstitial bone-marrow quality.