Comparison between an axial transmission device and high resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography—A clinical evaluation of ultrasound for the assessment of cortical bone quality

Quantitative ultrasound mainly evaluates cancellous bones, although cortical bone is now thought to be more important to determine bone fragility. Therefore, we developed an axial transmission device (f = 3MHz) to measure the cortical Speed of Sound (cSOS). The purpose of this study is to investigate the material properties in cortical bone that cSOS reflects by using High Resolution-peripheral Quantitative CT (HR-pQCT). In 19 patients and healthy volunteers (aged 33-73), the cSOS at the tibia and radius were measured by our ultrasonic device. Cortical bone parameters were measured by HR-pQCT (Scanco). Areal bone mineral density (aBMD) at the lumbar spine and femur were measured by DXA. cSOS had a strong correlation with the cortical volumetric mineral density (Ct.vBMD) measured by HR-pQCT at both the tibia and the radius (r = 0.83, 0.72, p