The Effects of Desiccation on Skull Bone Sound Speed in Porcine Models

Pre- and postdesiccation sound speeds through ex vivo porcine skull specimens were determined by time-of-flight measurements with propagated broadband pulses centered at 0.97 MHz (Phi
_s
12.7 mm, -6-dB bandwidth = 58%). The measured longitudinal sound speed in the 13 porcine samples (predesiccation average sound speed = 1727 plusmn 57 ms
^-1
) changed by a statistically significant +2.3% after deionized water reconstitution (paired t-test, alpha = 0.05, p = 0.0332).