Variations in transit-time-based ultrasonic velocity estimates in human calcaneus due to frequency-dependent attenuation and dispersion

Transit-time-based methods for ultrasonic velocity estimation generally involve measurement of arrival times of broadband pulses. A marker on the pulse waveform, such as a zero crossing, is often used. Variations in sound-speed estimates may arise from frequency-dependent attenuation and dispersion which alter spectral characteristics of waveforms and shift locations of markers. Theory is presented to correct for this distortion for Gaussian pulses propagating through linearly- attenuating, weakly-dispersive media. The theory is validated on 21 human calcaneus samples in vitro using diagnostic frequencies for bone sonometry. While the effects of disherison can be shown to be small, variations in velocity estimates due to frequency-dependent attenuation have substantial magnitude relative to the difference in average sound speeds between normal and osteoporotic bone.

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