Development of a non-invasive screening technique for detection of wrist fractures in children

A study applying vibration analysis was conducted on the wrists of children aged between 10 and 15 years old to determine the presence or absence of fracture, following wrist trauma. Without radiographs it is not possible for a doctor to confirm whether trauma has resulted in a sprain or a fracture. The current waiting time for patients to see a doctor is set at 4 hours by the National Health Service of the U.K. This means that many children (who only have a sprain) are exposed to unnecessary radiation and they and their guardians are spending needless hours in the Emergency Department and potentially prolonging the stay of others. Therefore, a screening tool is required to more precisely select those children who should proceed to radiographic examinations. We have developed a hand-held vibration inducer that sends vibrating signals through the long bones for a small period of time. This device is pre-programmed and captures the corresponding vibration responses by means of a piezoelectric sensor. Data were recorded from the local children’s hospital. Noise and distortion of the signals were removed as much as possible by three methods. The methods consist of subtraction of the root mean squared signals from each signal acquired, filtering the resulting signals and finally application of a suitable windowing method. The frequencies were classified by the 'Maximum Likelihood Estimate'. The frequencies were separated into two groups: males and females for clearer comparisons. All analyses were compared with x-ray findings.