Abstract
AIM - To develop a system to measure in bone, the velocity and attenuation coefficient of ultrasound as a function of frequency, in infants at the cotside and to determine its reproducibility.
METHOD - The infants wrist is placed between two transducers. They are at a fixed distance from each other in two containers each with a thin rubber membrane acoustic window. The radius is scanned and ten measurements taken for averaging.
Electrical pulses, controlled by a microcomputer, are produced at the transmitter output, which can excite both transducers. The received echoes are routed to an analogue-to-digital converter and the gated digital signals and their time of arrival are used to calculate the bone thickness and the velocity and attenuation coefficient of sound. This was repeated 5 times in one infant.
RESULTS - Bone thickness mean 5.46 mm SD 0.19, velocity mean 1530 m/s SD 22, attenuation coefficient mean 17.9 MHz/dB/cm SD 1.0.
CONCLUSION - Ultrasonic assessment of bone is a reproducible technique which we are using to study term and preterm neonates.
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Weir, F., Nassiri, D. & Hamilton, P. 95 Assessment of bone mineralization by ultrasound in Infants. Pediatr Res 28, 293 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199009000-00119
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199009000-00119
