Assessment of bone condition by acoustic emission technique: A review

The paper deals with the review of acoustic emission technique in biomedical field. The review is done with the aim to provide an overview of the use of AE technique in biomedical field, mainly concentrated on the AE behavior of bone under different loading conditions, its dependence on strain rate, in osteoporosis, monitoring the fracture healing process of bone. The overall conclusion from the review was that almost all the studies in bone indicated that the initial AE occurs only in the plastic region and just prior to yield. That means the use of AE technique for clinical application cannot be considered as a safe technique, but the early occurrence of AE events from callus promises the application of AE technique for monitoring the fracture healing process. The negligible effect of soft tissues on AE response of bone promises AE to become a non-invasive method for assessment of bone condition.