title: An Advanced Quantitative Echosound Methodology for Femoral Neck Densitometry.
abstract: The aim of this paper was to investigate the clinical feasibility and the accuracy in femoral neck densitometry of the Osteoporosis Score (O.S.), an ultrasound (US) parameter for osteoporosis diagnosis that has been recently introduced for lumbar spine applications. A total of 377 female patients (aged 61-70 y) underwent both a femoral dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and an echographic scan of the proximal femur. Recruited patients were sub-divided into a reference database used for ultrasound spectral model construction and a study population for repeatability assessments and accuracy evaluations. Echographic images and radiofrequency signals were analyzed through a fully automatic algorithm that performed a series of combined spectral and statistical analyses, providing as a final output the O.S. value of the femoral neck. Assuming DXA as a gold standard reference, the accuracy of O.S.-based diagnoses resulted 94.7%, with k = 0.898 (p < 0.0001). Significant correlations were also found between O.S.-estimated bone mineral density and corresponding DXA values, with r(2) up to 0.79 and root mean square error = 5.9-7.4%. The reported accuracy levels, combined with the proven ease of use and very good measurement repeatability, provide the adopted method with a potential for clinical routine application in osteoporosis diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: National Research Council, Institute of Clinical Physiology, Lecce, Italy. Electronic address: sergio.casciaro@cnr.it.
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Casciaro
authors.affiliation: Echolight srl, Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Peccarisi
authors.affiliation: National Research Council, Institute of Clinical Physiology, Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pisani
authors.affiliation: National Research Council, Institute of Clinical Physiology, Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Franchini
authors.affiliation: Echolight srl, Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Greco
authors.affiliation: Echolight srl, Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Tommaso
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: De Marco
authors.affiliation: Operative Unit of Rheumatology, Galateo Hospital, San Cesario di Lecce, Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grimaldi
authors.affiliation: Operative Unit of Rheumatology, Galateo Hospital, San Cesario di Lecce, Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Quarta
authors.affiliation: Operative Unit of Rheumatology, Galateo Hospital, San Cesario di Lecce, Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Eugenio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Quarta
authors.affiliation: Operative Unit of Rheumatology, Galateo Hospital, San Cesario di Lecce, Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Maruizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muratore
authors.affiliation: National Research Council, Institute of Clinical Physiology, Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Conversano
mesh_terms: D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon / Q000379:methods; D000368:Aged; D015519:Bone Density; D003720:Densitometry / Q000379:methods; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D005272:Femur Neck / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Bone Densitometry; Bone Mineral Density Measurement; Femoral Neck; Osteoporosis diagnosis; Quantitative Ultrasound; Radiofrequency Signal Analysis