Study Findings from Rhodes College Broaden Understanding of Bone Research (Ultrasonic backscatter measurements of cancellous bone in the near field of a planar transducer).

A recent study conducted at Rhodes College has explored the use of ultrasonic backscatter techniques to detect changes in bone caused by osteoporosis and other diseases. The researchers investigated how measurements in the near field of a planar transducer affect backscatter parameters used for ultrasonic bone assessment. They found that three backscatter parameters, AIB, FSAB, and FIAB, depended on the distance between the transducer and the specimen to varying degrees, with FSAB exhibiting the greatest dependence. The study suggests that future laboratory studies of bone should evaluate the performance of backscatter parameters using clinically relevant transducer-specimen distances, including distances where the ultrasonically interrogated region is in the near field of the transducer. [Extracted from the article]