title: Quantitative assessment of osteoporosis from the tibia shaft by ultrasound techniques.
abstract: Bone mineral density (BMD) is used as a clinical estimate of the risk of fracture. Ultrasound provides an alternative or complement to X-ray based methods of bone densitometry for determining BMD. Among ultrasonic characteristics, the speed of sound (SOS) is a useful tool for assessment of osteoporosis because, as recently reported, it represents a combination of density and compressibility of bone tissue. Thus, it might provide better information on bone quality to estimate the fracture risk. In this paper, a dual-transducer ultrasound technique was employed to measure the mean ultrasound propagation speed of the cortical layer as well as the cancellous layer at the tibia shaft. Encouraging results from 18 outpatients showed a high correlation (r = 0.93) between measurements of BMD and those from dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA).
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Cheng-Kung UniversityTainan 70101,Taiwan. chenta@mail.bme.ncku.edu.tw
authors.forename: Tainsong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Pei-Jarn
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Chia-Shiung
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Fung
authors.forename: Chi-Jeng
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Wei-Jen
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Yao
mesh_terms: D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon; D000368:Aged; D015519:Bone Density; D003720:Densitometry / Q000379:methods*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013977:Tibia / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000528:radiation effects / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D014159:Transducers; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*