Relationships of the ultrasonic backscatter measurements with the bone mineral density and the microarchitectural parameters in bovine trabecular bone in vitro

Abstract

Relationships of the backscatter coefficient (BC), the apparent integrated backscatter (AIB), and the integrated reflection coefficient (IRC) with the bone mineral density (BMD) and the microarchitectural parameters were investigated in 28 bovine femoral trabecular bone samples. The BC was highly correlated with the BMD and the microarchitectural parameters (R = -0.66 to 0.71). In contrast, the AIB and the IRC exhibited high correlations with the BMD and the bone volume fraction (R = -0.68 to 0.77) and relatively lower correlations with the remaining microarchitectural parameters (R = -0.62 to 0.60). The multiple regression models yielded the adjusted squared correlation coefficients of 0.54-0.76.