• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.171-176
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• 1998

The objective of this study was to re-evaluate ultrasound attenuation as an indicator of bone properties. Ultrasound attenuation(BUA), were measured in the three orthogonal directions of trabecular bone cubes, Measurements of bone mineral density(BMD) were made using quantitative computed tomography and apparent density by weighing bone specimens and measuring their volume. Ultrasonic modulus was calculated from the standard equation with apparent density and ultrasound velocity. Ultrasound attenuation at a frequency of 0.5 MHz and BUA were correlated with BMD and ultrasonic modulus in the anterior/posterior, medial/lateral, and superior/inferior directions. Analysis of correlations demonstrated that attenuation at 0.5 MHz was superior to BUA in describing both BMD and elastic modulus of trabecular bone. This result may be used to improve current ultrasound diagnostic techniques for assessing bone status.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.373-380
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• 1998

The prediction of bone strength by ultrasound velocity and broadband ultrasound attenuation was examined. Ultrasound velocity and broadband attenuation were measured for sixty specimens of human trabecular bone. Samples were divided into two equal groups and loaded in compression at the strain rates of $0.0004\;s^{-1}$ and of $0.08\;s^{-1}$. The ultimate strength was determined for each specimen. Specimens tested at $0.08\;s^{-1}$ had a mean value of strength 63% higher than the specimens tested at $0.0004\;s^{-1}$. Ultrasound velocity and broadband attenuation were significantly associated with compressive strength at both strain rates. Mechanical strength was also correlated strongly with a linear combination of ultrasound velocity and broadband attenuation for both the low and high loading rates. The use of ultrasound parameters may provide good clinical means for assessing the resistance of trabecular bone to both low and high energy trauma.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.245-248
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• 1997

The distilled water is used for the ultrasonic wave propagating material in the measurements of broadband ultrasonic attenuation (BUA) that is applied in industrial and medical applications, The acoustic impedance of water is significantly changed with its temperature. Therefore, the quantitative evaluation of BUA with temperature and the ultrasonic wave propagating distance is highly needed. In this study, we evaluated the variation of attenuation with change in temperature. To measure the variation of BUA in the low frequency region at the temperatures, 27$^{\circ}C$, 29$^{\circ}C$, and 31$^{\circ}C$, we tested the Plyethylene, Teflon, MC-Nylon, Urethane specimens and analyzed the center frequency, frequency bandwidth, spectral peak amplitude. The results showed that BUA value appeared to be lower with increasing temperature. This may be due to the fact that the frequency feature of ultrasonic wave is affected by not only the specific gravity, acoustic impedence, but material crystalline, porosity, the distance of ultrasonic wave propagation in water.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.8 s.173
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• pp.182-191
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• 2005

It is very important to obtain a high quality of bone image for an accurate ultrasonic measurement of bone mineral density. In this study, we suggested a technique to acquire an optimal image by adapting an acoustic lens and a properly selected ultrasonic probe. Also, we have applied an image processing algorithm with which automatically makes a decision of brightness and contrast of image by generating threshold level, a composition of ultrasonic data, an elimination of noise using modified median filter, and a real time interpolation. We could confirm much improved resolution of bone image with acoustic lens attached to the ultrasonic probe and with the image processing algorithm suggested in this study. Therefore, it became possible to precisely diagnose the osteoprosis using ultrasonic imaging technique.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.29 no.10 s.241
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• pp.1430-1437
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• 2005

It is very important to achieve a high reproducibility in the ultrasonic measurement of bone mineral density. In this study, we examined number of sampling waveform, control of temperature, diameter of region of interest as factors to improve reproducibility. We decided the optimal number of waveforms to be converted to frequency domain as period of 1. We have minimized the effects of variable temperature and constrained generation of micro bubble by keeping temperature within a range of $32\pm0.5^{\circ}C$ with a precise temperature controlling algorithm. We also found the optimal diameter of region of interest to be 13mm. In this paper, we demonstrated the improved reproducibility by controlling various factors affecting the ultrasonic measurement of bone mineral density.