Amplitude modulation excitation for cancellous bone evaluation using a portable ultrasonic backscatter instrumentation

Abstract

The ultrasonic backscatter (UB) has the advantage of non-invasively obtaining bone density and structure, expected to be an assessment tool for early diagnosis osteoporosis. All former UB measurements were based on exciting a short single-pulse and analyzing the ultrasonic signals backscattered in bone. This study aims to examine amplitude modulation (AM) ultrasonic excitation with UB measurements for predicting bone characteristics. The AM multiple lengths excitation and backscatter measurement (AM-UB) functions were integrated into a portable ultrasonic instrument for bone characterization. The apparent integrated backscatter coefficient in the AM excitation (AIBAM) was evaluated on the AM-UB instrumentation. The correlation coefficients of the AIBAM estimating volume fraction (BV/TV), structure model index (SMI), and bone mineral density (BMD) were then analyzed. Significant correlations (|R| = 0.82–0.93, p < 0.05) were observed between the AIBAM, BV/TV, SMI, and BMD. By growing the AM excitation length, the AIBAM values exhibit more stability both in 1.0-MHz and 3.5-MHz measurements. The recommendations in AM-UB measurement were that the avoided length (T1) should be lower than AM excitation length, and the analysis length (T2) should be enough long but not more than AM excitation length. The authors conducted an AM-UB measurement for cancellous bone characterization. Increasing the AM excitation length could substantially enhance AIBAM values stability with varying analyzed signals. The study suggests the portable AM-UB instrument with the integration of real-time analytics software that might provide a potential tool for osteoporosis early screening.