Using of terahertz radiation for monitoring of senile osteoporosis development

Osteoporosis is a major cause of morbidity of older people. Direct financial expenditure for the treatment of osteoporotic fracture in the U.S. is estimated at $10-$15 billion per year. Though there are a number of methods for diagnostics of osteoporosis, X-ray radioscopy, NMR, element analysis, densitometry, etc., the development of new methods, which are complementary to the existing ones, is highly desirable. We have carried out first experiments on the examination of spectroscopic characteristics of healthy and osteoporosis-affected bone tissues in the terahertz spectral range. The samples were prepared by pressing of grounded bone tissue obtained from the intact rats Wistar and from the senescence-accelerated rats OXYS. The OXYS rats suffered hereditary osteoporosis developed early in life are, therefore, a useful model for examining osteoporosis. The first experiments using a Fourier-spectrometer showed considerable difference in the bone tissue absorbance for two strains, though statistic tests are still required. Because the bone tissue is a highly-absorbing substance, the attenuated total reflection spectroscopy seems to be the most adequate method for detailed bone study. Imaging radioscopy of bone samples using a matrix of microbolometers as a sensor and the Novosibirsk free electron laser as a source of monochromatic terahertz radiation is described.