title: A new method for quantitative ultrasound measurements at multiple skeletal sites: first results of precision and fracture discrimination.
abstract: We investigated a new multisite quantitative ultrasound device that measures the acoustic velocity in axial transmission mode along the cortex. Using a prototype of the Omnisense (Sunlight Ultrasound Technologies, Rehovot, Israel), we tested the performance of this instrument at four sites of the skeleton: radius, ulna, metacarpal, and phalanx. Intraobserver (interobserver) precision errors ranged from 0.2% to 0.3% (0.3% to 0.7%) for triplicate measurements with repositioning. Fracture discrimination was tested by comparing a group of 34 women who had previously suffered a fracture of the hip, spine, ankle, or forearm to a group of 28 healthy women who had not suffered a fracture. Age-adjusted standardized odds ratios ranged from 1.6 to 4.5. Except for the ulna the sites showed a significant fracture discrimination (p < 0.01). The areas under the receiver operating curves (ROC) curves were from 0.88 to 0.89 for radius, metacarpal, and phalanx. A combination of the results from the three sites showed a significant increase of the ROC area to 0.95 (p < 0. 05). Our results show promising performance of this new device. The ability to measure a large variety of sites and the potential to combine these measurements are promising with regard to optimizing fracture risk assessment.
authors.affiliation: Medizinische Physik, Diagnostische Radiologie, CAU Kiel, Germany. barkmann@rad.uni-kiel.de.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Barkmann
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kantorovich
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Singal
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hans
authors.forename: H K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Genant
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heller
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Glüer
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D050723:Fractures, Bone / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D015588:Observer Variation; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012372:ROC Curve; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data