Quantitative ultrasound noninvasive investigation of trabecular organization and orientation

Osteoporosis is a silent disease responsible for over a million fragility fractures per year. Current diagnostics rely heavily on bone density measurements. While clinical diagnostics rely on x-ray BMD, density measures alone are not sufficient for fracture risk prediction. Quantitative Ultrasound has emerged as an alternative measure, providing more inherent material information than simple density. To date research attempts to reduce variability in ultrasound measures by limiting motion and orientation of samples. However, as we see here, it may be possible to use this dependence on internal trabecular orientation as an additional measure to track the changing mechanical environment inside the bone as Osteoporosis progresses.