Abstract
Diseases and associated fragility of bone is an important medical issue. There is increasing evidence that bone health is related to blood flow and oxygen delivery. The development of non-invasive methods to evaluate bone blood flow and oxygen delivery promise to improve the detection and treatment of bone health in human. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been used to evaluate oxygen levels, blood flow, and metabolism in skeletal muscle and brain. While the limited penetration depth of NIRS restricts its application, NIRS studies have been performed on the medial aspect of the tibia and some other prominent bone sites. Two approaches using NIRS to evaluate bone health are discussed: (1) the rate of re-oxygenation of bone after a short bout of ischemia, and (2) the dynamics of oxygen levels during an intervention such as resistance exercise. Early studies have shown these approaches to have the potential to evaluate bone vascular health as well as the predicted efficacy of an intervention before changes in bone composition are detectable. Future studies are needed to fully develop and exploit the use of NIRS technology for the study of bone health.
Highlights
Bone is a highly vascularized organ, and it has been well-documented that blood supply plays a key role in bone development (Marenzana and Arnett, 2013)
Emerging research have suggested that near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) could potentially be a suitable tool for this mission (Binzoni and Spinelli, 2015; Meertens et al, 2018)
Near-infrared spectroscopy measured tissue oxygen levels has been used to indicate the balance between oxygen delivery and oxygen utilization, both at rest and during exercise (Hamaoka et al, 2011; Hesford et al, 2012)
Summary
Bone is a highly vascularized organ, and it has been well-documented that blood supply plays a key role in bone development (Marenzana and Arnett, 2013). Positron emission tomography (PET) (Ashcroft et al, 1992; Frost et al, 2003) and dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (Wang et al, 2009; Ma et al, 2013) are capable of measuring bone blood flow. These approaches have limited application due to the non-portable nature of this equipment as well as the high cost, high technical requirement to perform and analyze the PET and MRI scans. There is a growing need for non-invasive, easy to perform assessment for bone hemodynamics. We discuss some basic principles of NIRS as it can be applied to bone, summarize current studies that assessed long bone hemodynamics using NIRS, and point out promising directions for future research
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