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Qus Techniques Used In The Use Of QUS Methods

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In order to measure quantitative parameters and assess tissue properties, QUS techniques are also used. Inter¬est in US methods can be attributed primarily to the fact that they do not involve radiation exposure. In addition, US devices offer the advantages of small size, portabil¬ity, quick and simple measurements, low costs compared with both DXA and QCT, shorter investigation times with respect to DXA (43).
QUS of bone has been introduced approximately two decades ago as a method for investigating bone structural features and elastic properties of bone tissues, which could not be assessed using densitometric techniques (43), and has been applied particularly in post-menopausal os¬teoporosis (44). The recent technical innovations of some …show more content…

The first US parameters employed for characterizing bone tissues are: Speed of Sound (SoS) and Broadband Ultrasound Attenuation (BUA). More complex parame¬ters have been developed from combination of SoS and BUA: amplitude dependent speed of sound (AD-SoS), stiffness, quantitative ultrasound index (QUI) (45). In the diagnosis of osteoporosis, these latter have proved to be more useful in identifying subjects with low BMD and therefore at high risk of fracture (47).

Several studies have been focused on evaluating the per¬formance of US systems in terms of stability, accuracy, and ability in the discrimination of patients with osteo¬porotic fractures. Most of these studies involve com¬parison of the QUS method with X-ray methods such as DXA or QCT (48).

It has been shown that ultrasonography allows to obtain useful information, such as the distribution of the mineralized matrix within the bone (the connectiv¬ity and the thickness of the trabeculae) and the different resistance to loading of the bone tissue according to the trabecular orientation (49).

In the last decades, a large number of studies have confirmed the usefulness of QUS in predicting osteo¬porotic fractures of the calcaneus (particularly in elderly women aged 65-70 years or older), the distal metaphysis of the phalanx, the radius and the tibia (50).

Recently, new QUS techniques to assess the femur and

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