Broadband ultrasound attenuation value dependence on bone width in vitro.

The purpose of this study was to examine the dependence of broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA) on bone width using 16 samples of dense bovine cancellous bone. Both BUA and density were measured simultaneously so that a dependence of BUA on bone width independent of density could be found. BUA was found to increase significantly with bone width (3.6 dB MHz-1 mm-1, r = 0.92, p < 0.0001) and this increase could not be explained by associated changes in density.