Quantitative ultrasound: status 1999

In recent years Quantitative Ultrasound (QUS) approaches have increasingly been used for the assessment of osteoporosis. The development of new techno logies has accelerated, and today a number of different devices are commerc ially available. For a balanced evaluation of the approaches one needs to r ecognise two issues:there are different applications for QUS, and there are different QUS approaches and devices. Regarding the applications, today th e main area for use of QUS approaches is the assessment of a fracture risk. For use in monitoring and diagnosis, further advances and studies are requ ired. Regarding the various approaches, one needs to recognise the differen ces between the measurement parameters Speed Of Sound (SOS) and Broadband U ltrasound attenuation (BUA),the different measurement sites and the differe nt technologies employed. Moreover, some of the earlier devices are very we ll validated whereas newer machines may feature more advanced technology - which, however, needs to be tested and validated. Whatever the choice of a device will be, adequate and regularly performed measures for quality assur ance and in-depth knowledge on the general and device specific limitations of the approach are of substantial importance. When used appropriately, QUS devices can play an important role in the assessment of osteoporosis.