The photoacoustic (PA) technique is uniquely positioned for biomedical applications primarily due to its ability to visualize optical absorption contrast in deep tissue at ultrasound resolution. In this work, via both three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulations and in vivo experiments on human subjects, we investigated the possibility of PA measurement of human calcaneus bones in vivo in a non-invasive manner, as well as its feasibility to differentiate osteoporosis patients from normal subjects. The results from the simulations and the experiments both demonstrated that, when one side of the heel is illuminated by laser with light fluence under the ANSI safety limit, the PA signal generated in the human calcaneus bone can be detected by an ultrasonic transducer at the other side of the heel (i.e. transmission mode). Quantitative power spectral analyses of the calcaneus bone PA signals were also conducted, demonstrating that the microarchitectural changes in calcaneus bone due to osteoporosis can be detected, as reflected by enhanced high frequency components in detected PA bone signal. Further statistical analysis of the experimental results from 10 osteoporosis patients and 10 healthy volunteers showed that the weighted frequency as a quantified PA spectral parameter can differentiate the two subject groups with statistical significance.

光声 (PA) 技术在生物医学应用中具有独特的地位，这主要是因为它能够以超声分辨率显示深层组织中的光吸收对比度。在这项工作中，经由两个三维（3D）数值模拟和体内对人受试者的实验中，我们研究了人类跟骨骨的PA测量的可能性体内以非侵入性的方式，以及它区分骨质疏松症患者与正常受试者的可行性。模拟和实验结果均表明，当用光通量低于 ANSI 安全限值的激光照射足跟的一侧时，人体跟骨中产生的 PA 信号可以被另一侧的超声换能器检测到。侧跟（即传动方式）。还进行了跟骨骨 PA 信号的定量功率谱分析，表明可以检测到由于骨质疏松症引起的跟骨的微结构变化，如检测到的 PA 骨信号中增强的高频分量所反映的那样。对 10 名骨质疏松症患者和 10 名健康志愿者的实验结果进一步统计分析表明，加权频率作为量化的 PA 频谱参数可以区分具有统计显着性的两个主题组。