HYDROACOUSTICS
ANNUAL JOURNAL
START NEW VOL 20 SEARCH STATISTICS PAS - GDANSK DIVISION

Evaluation of trabecular bone properties using ultrasonic scanner

pp. 39-52, vol. 13, 2010

Lucyna Cieślik
Department of Ultrasound Institute of Fundamental Technological Research Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa, Poland

Jerzy Litniewski
Department of Ultrasound Institute of Fundamental Technological Research Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa, Poland

Marcin Lewandowski
Department of Ultrasound Institute of Fundamental Technological Research Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa, Poland

Andrzej Nowicki
Department of Ultrasound Institute of Fundamental Technological Research Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa, Poland

Key words: osteoporosis diagnosis; treatment monitoring; ultrasound

Abstract: Signals scattered in trabecular bone contain information about properties of the bone structure. Evaluation of this properties may be essential for osteoporosis diagnosis and treatment monitoring because the standard densitometry does not provide complete information about the bone strength. It was previously demonstrated that using numerical model of backscattering in trabecular bone it is possible to estimate some microstructural characteristics of bone. Model predicts departures from the Rayleigh statistics of the scattered signal envelope depended on the scatterer physical parameters and its shape uniformity. This study concerns examination of trabecular bone (calcaneus) in vivo. Ultrasonic bone scanner operating at frequency of 1,5 MHz was used to collect backscattered signals. Data were processed in order to obtain the statistical properties of the signal envelope and to compare them with histograms resulting from modeling. This study is an approach towards developing a tool for the investigation of scattering in trabecular bone that can potentially provide clinically useful information about bone strength and condition.

Download: Fulltext PDF, BibTeX

© Polish Acoustical Society - Gdansk Department, Polish Academy of Sciences. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported. (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)