Influence of marrow on ultrasonic velocity and attenuation in bovine trabecular bone

Measurements of ultrasonic velocity and specific differential attenuation (SDA) were obtained on 24 bovine trabecular bone specimens from the femoral condyles. The measurements were obtained using two pairs of ultrasonic transducers, one with a low nominal center frequency (500 kHz) and the other pair with a high nominal center frequency (1 MHz). The ultrasonic velocity and specific differential attenuation associated with the bone samples were determined both with and without marrow, i.e., replacing the marrow with water in the pores of the trabecular bone. Significant increases (2.1% and 2.9%) in the velocity of ultrasound were observed after removal of the marrow, for the low and high frequency transducer pairs, respectively. In contrast, significant decreases (-6.5% and -8.8%) in SDA were observed after removal of the marrow, for the low and high frequency transducer pairs, respectively. The bone densities (BD) of the samples were also determined using single photon absorptiometry (SPA). Correlations between ultrasonic parameters and bone densities for samples both with and without marrow were found to be similar. For example, for the 1 MHz transducer pair, the correlation between BD and velocity was r = 0.86 with marrow, and r = 0.89 without marrow. This study also compared the results obtained using a contact (no water bath) technique and an insertion (with a water bath) technique of ultrasonic measurements. For the high frequency transducer pair, the correlation coefficients between the two methods were r = 0.99 and r = 0.93, for the velocity and specific differential attenuation, respectively. Similar results were found for the low frequency transducer pair as well. In addition, approximately equal correlations between BD and ultrasonic velocity and SDA were also found, indicating that contact and insertion measurements provide essentially equivalent information.