Ultrasound velocity and broadband attenuation over a wide range of bone mineral density.

Ultrasound velocity (UV) and broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA) were studied in human and bovine bone with a wide range of bone mineral density (BMD). The BMD of 98 fresh specimens was measured by quantitative computed tomography: 42 cancellous specimens from women in the age group of 64 +/- 4 years; 51 bovine cancellous and 5 bovine cortical. BMD values ranged from 90 to 400 mg/cm3 for the human cancellous bone, 310 to 870 mg/cm3 for the bovine cancellous bone, and 1750 to 1780 mg/cm3 for the bovine cortical bone. BMD showed a strong linear correlation with apparent density over the entire range of density (r = 0.979). UV of human and bovine cancellous bone was 1480-2650 m/s and 2880-3100 m/s for bovine cortical bone. BUA values were 1-61 dB/MHz/cm for the cancellous specimens and 5-12 dB/MHz/cm for cortical specimens. UV was found to be linear with BMD for all specimens; however, BUA was linear with BMD only for the specimens from elderly women. A quadratic relationship between BUA and BMD was found when the bovine samples were included.