Patent ID: 11896426
Assignee: nan
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  G | IPC A  G

Claim 28:
29. A method of non-invasive and quantitative assessment of the status of bone tissue in a bony member within a living organism, comprising the steps of:
acoustically coupling a transducer to skin disposed over the bony member;
generating a first axial-ultrasound signal in the bony member along a longitudinal axis of the bony member in a first axial direction to obtain a first pair of axial-ultrasound output signals, and generating a second axial-ultrasound signal in the bony member along the longitudinal axis of the bony member in a second axial direction, wherein the second axial direction is opposite to the first axial direction, to obtain a second pair of axial-ultrasound output signals;
processing the first pair of axial-ultrasound output signals and the second pair of axial-ultrasound output signals, to obtain an axial-transmission time delay;
generating a radial ultrasound signal and directing the radial ultrasound signal from the transducer radially through the bone tissue to obtain a pulse-echo output signal;
processing the pulse-echo output signal to obtain a pulse-echo time delay corresponding to a transit time for the radial ultrasound signal to travel between a periosteum of the bony member and an endosteum of the bony member; and,
generating an estimate of a characteristic of the bone tissue responsive to both the axial-transmission time delay and the pulse-echo time delay.