Bone strength diagnosing apparatus

Abstract

The purpose of the current invention is to provide a bone strength diagnosing device and a bone strength diagnosing method capable of accurately diagnosing a bone strength of a bone. A longitudinal ultrasonic transducer and a transverse ultrasonic transducer radiate ultrasonic waves onto a bone front surface of a tibia from a predetermined angle to generate surface waves that propagate in the bone front surface in a longitudinal direction of the tibia and in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, respectively, and receive leaky waves leaking to the side of the soft tissues from the front surface waves. A speed-of-sound calculating module calculates speeds of sound of the surface waves in the transverse direction and the longitudinal direction based on a difference between course lengths of the ultrasonic waves and a difference between propagation times. A first index calculating module calculates a first index by which a bone density is evaluated using the speed of sound of the surface wave in the transverse direction. A second index calculating module calculates a second index by which an orientation of the bone is evaluated using the speeds of sound of the surface waves in the longitudinal direction and the transverse direction. A third index calculating module measures a cortical bone thickness and then calculates a third index by which a bone strength is evaluated. A bone diagnosing module uses at least one of the first index, the second index, and the third index to diagnose the bone strength.

Description

Technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a bone strength diagnosis device and a bone strength diagnosis method that use ultrasound to diagnose bone strength. Background technique [0002] Hitherto, as a device for diagnosing bone strength, there are diagnostic devices that use X-rays to precisely measure bone density. However, there has been a problem that the device is large in scale and exposed to radiation. [0003] Therefore, as a non-invasive bone strength diagnostic device that does not cause this problem, a device that utilizes ultrasound is used (for example, refer to Patent Document 1). In such a diagnostic apparatus, ultrasonic waves are radiated from an ultrasonic wave transmitting device from a direction inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the bone surface to generate surface waves on the bone surface. Then, for example, an ultrasonic receiving device that can move relative to the ultrasonic wave transmitting device receives the leaked wave...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0005] However, the inventors of the present invention have found that even when the measured surface wave has a fast sound velocity, the actual bone density may sometimes be low. On the contrary, even if the measured surface wave has a slow sound velocity, sometimes It happens that the actual bone density is higher, and the fact that the sound velocity of the surface wave in the long axis direction of the long tubular bone has little correlation with the bone density

Therefore, it is difficult to accurately evaluate bone strength based on the sound velocity of surface waves in the long axis direction of long tubular bones

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