title: Ultrasonic scanner for in vivo measurement of cancellous bone properties from backscattered data.
abstract: A dedicated ultrasonic scanner for acquiring RF echoes backscattered from the trabecular bone was developed. The design of device is based on the goal of minimizing of custom electronics and computations executed solely on the main computer processor and the graphics card. The electronic encoder-digitizer module executing all of the transmission and reception functions is based on a single low-cost field programmable gate array (FPGA). The scanner is equipped with a mechanical sector-scan probe with a concave transducer with 50 mm focal length, center frequency of 1.5 MHz and 60% bandwidth at -6 dB. The example of femoral neck bone examination shows that the scanner can provide ultrasonic data from deeply located bones with the ultrasound penetrating the trabecular bone up to a depth of 20 mm. It is also shown that the RF echo data acquired with the scanner allow for the estimation of attenuation coefficient and frequency dependence of backscattering coefficient of trabecular bone. The values of the calculated parameters are in the range of corresponding in vitro data from the literature but their variation is relatively high.
authors: Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Warsaw, Poland. jlitn@ippt.gov.pl
authors: Jerzy
authors: J
authors: Litniewski
authors: Lucyna
authors: L
authors: Cieslik
authors: Marcin
authors: M
authors: Lewandowski
authors: Ryszard
authors: R
authors: Tymkiewicz
authors: Boguslaw
authors: B
authors: Zienkiewicz
authors: Andrzej
authors: A
authors: Nowicki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D008904:Miniaturization; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D014463:Ultrasonography; D055815:Young Adult