Confocal acoustic scanning for characterizing human trabecular bone quantity and quality

Osteoporosis is a common disease in USA. The consequence of this disease is reduced bone density and deteriorating bone mechanical strength. A scanning confocal acoustic scanning diagnostic (SCAD) system has been developed in our lab for characterization of not only bones' quantity but also quality. The results showed that SCAD determined broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA) and ultrasound velocity (UV) are highly correlated with the bone density (R>0.72) and modulus (R>0.67). Linear regression tests showed that the correlation coefficients can be further improved by combining the BUA and UV (R>0.80).