Water diffusion in cancellous bone

In this paper, by means of in vivo experiments, a porous system model suitable for investigating the structural properties of cancellous bone by using diffusion MRI techniques is described and corroborated. Toward this goal a cancellous bone model is described on the basis of some recent evidence obtained in both calf bone samples and human vertebrae. Then, the calcaneus and the femoral neck of healthy, osteopenic and osteoporotic subjects were investigating, as classified by the bone mineral density (BMD) parameter, by measuring the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), together with the marrow fat content (Mfc) and assessing associations between bone mineral-density index T-score, Mfc and ADC. MR spectroscopy (1H-MRS) and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) with b-value = 2500 s/mm(2) and b-value = 8000 s/mm(2) to investigate femoral neck and calcaneus, respectively, were obtained in each subject using a 3T MR scanner. One-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation analyses were applied.