The Journal of the Acoustical Society of KoreaISSN:1225-4428(Print) 2287-3775(Online)한국음향학회

The cortical bone thickness of the tibia is related to fracture risk and overall bone status. The present study aims to investigate the feasibility of two different ultrasonic methods for measuring the cortical bone thickness in bovine tibia in vitro. In the reflection technique, the tibial cortical thickness was determined from ultrasonic reflections from the periosteum and the endosteum producing specific peaks in the signal envelope. In the axial transmission technique, the tibial cortical thickness was determined from ultrasonic guided wave velocities measured along the axial direction of the tibia. The cortical bone thickness determined by using the reflection technique correlated significantly with that measured by using a caliper, with a Pearson’s correlation coefficient of r = 0.97 (p < 0.0001). In contrast, the correlation coefficients for the axial transmission technique were r = 0.92 (p < 0.0001) for the first arriving signal method and r = 0.89 (p < 0.0001) for the slow guided wave method. Clinical feasibility should be demonstrated with an in vivo application to address the question whether the ultrasonic methods presented here could be useful as a screening tool for osteoporosis and potentially could be applied to other skeletal sites such as the femur and the radius.