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

Claim 7:
8. A system for non-invasive and quantitative assessment of the status of bone tissue in a bony member within a living organism, comprising:
a first transducer configured for coupling to skin disposed over the bony member;
a second transducer configured for coupling to skin disposed over the bony member;
a controller coupled to the first and second transducers and configured to:
generate a first control signal causing the first transducer to
generate a first axial ultrasound signal from the first transducer towards and into the bony member wherein portions of the first axial ultrasound signal travel along a longitudinal axis of the bony member in a first axial direction;
receive first and second portions of the first axial ultrasound signal at a first pair of acoustic elements of the first transducer after the first and second portions of the first axial ultrasound signal have exited the bony member and generate a first pair of axial output signals in response;

process the first pair of axial output signals to obtain an axial transmission time delay;
generate a second control signal causing the second transducer to
generate a first radial ultrasound signal from the second transducer towards and into the bony member wherein portions of the first radial ultrasound signal are reflected by the bony member in a direction away from the longitudinal axis of the bony member;
receive first and second portions of the first radial ultrasound signal after reflection by the bony member and generate a pulse-echo output signal in response;

process the pulse-echo output signal to obtain a pulse-echo time delay corresponding to a transit time for the first radial ultrasound signal to travel between a periosteum of the bony member and an endosteum of the bony member; and,
generate an estimate of a characteristic of the bone tissue responsive to the axial-transmission time delay and the pulse-echo time delay.