ULTRASOUND ATTENUATION OF THE CALCANEUS IN NORMAL SUBJECTS AND IN PATIENTS WITH WRIST FRACTURE

We determined broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA) of the calcaneus, and bone mineral density (BMD) of the spine, proximal femur and radiu s in 137 healthy subjects (79 women and 58 men) and in 56 women with C olles' fracture. The repeated measurements on 9 healthy subjects indic ated a short-term reproducibility (coefficient of variation) of 4 perc ent for BUA. There was a small (7 percent) but significant difference in BUA between normal men and women. The age-dependence in normal subj ects was weak. When all the study subjects were pooled, modest correla tions between BUA of the calcaneus and BMD at all measured skeletal si tes were found (r(s) values 0.3-0.4). However, it was not possible to make an accurate prediction of the axial BMD, using BUA. BUA values we re 13 percent lower in the wrist fracture patients than in the age-mat ched normals. In general, BUA could discriminate the fracture patients from normals as effectively as BMD. As suggested by the physical theo ry of ultrasound attenuation, our results support the idea that BUA re flects not only the bone density but also other factors related to the structural properties of bone.