Measurement of bone properties by ultrasound to develop diagnostic equipment

An extracorporeal measurement system is proposed for measurements of bone properties in vivo by introducing a technique of excitation and detection of leaky surface waves developed in acoustic microscopy. Bovine femoral bone was taken as a bone sample, and velocities and attenuations were measured for the longitudinal bulk waves in the range of 2-10 MHz. On the basis of the measured results and published data for bone properties, an ultrasonic measurement system was designed to be operated at a frequency of 1 MHz. With the measurement system, leaky surface skimming compressional waves (LSSCWs) were successfully excited on polished flat surfaces of bones with water coupling, and phase velocities of LSSCWs were measured