The measurement of the velocity of ultrasound in fixed trabecular bone using broadband pulses and single-frequency tone bursts.

The velocity of ultrasound in a series of 10 fixed os calces was measured using both short pulses and 750 kHz tonebursts. The values obtained from the pulse measurements differed from the toneburst values by up to 16% depending on the selection of the zero-crossing point used as a reference in the pulse measurements. It is demonstrated that the discrepancy between the values is itself a function of the frequency-dependent attenuation in the propagating medium and this is confirmed by theoretical modelling. The toneburst results are also compared with measurements using a cross-correlation technique, and these show a close agreement.