Summary
A method of measuring ultrasonic propagation in the os calcis was devised for assessing bone properties in humans, Speed-of-sound (SOS) and broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA) were measured using broadband acoustic pulses transmitted and received by a pair of focused transducers. The transducers are mounted coaxially in a water tank with the subject's heel in between. Reproducibility of results in an adult male was 10% for the BUA and 1.2% for the SOS. Both SOS and BUA changed when the transmission path through the os calcis was varied. For a population of normal male subjects, SOS and BUA were correlated with densitometry results on the os calcis, but less well correlated to area density at remote sites.
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Zagzebski, J.A., Rossman, P.J., Mesina, C. et al. Ultrasound transmission measurements through the os calcis. Calcif Tissue Int 49, 107–111 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02565130
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02565130