Software Design And Of Ultrasonic Bone Densitometer Using Ultrasonic Backscattering

Osteoporosis,as one of the health problems perplexing the elderly,will affect more and more people as the world stepping into aging society.The diagnosis of osteoporosis is one of the important issues for researchers.The methods of diagnosis can be divided into two categories,including ultrasonic and ray methods.Compared with ray methods,diagnosis using ultrasound has the advantage of low cost,good portability,no ionizing radiation and so on.Quantitative ultrasound technique mainly includes ultrasonic transmission method,ultrasonic axial transmission method and ultrasonic backscattering method.Among them,the ultrasonic backscattering method can provide the information of bone microstructure,and is significant to characterize cancellous bone.This paper studies the ultrasonic backscatter theoretical models of cancellous bone,and introduces the parameters of ultrasonic backscatter signals.Among them,the mean space of trabecular bones(Mean Trabecular Bone Spacing,MTBS)is an important parameter.In addition,this paper introduces three algorithms to estimate MTBS from backscatter signals:AR cepstrum,singular spectrum analysis and wavelet.Meanwhile,thispaper compares the advantages and disadvantages of these algorithms,and proposes a new algorithm based on maximum likelihood estimation.This paper also designs the software of ultrasonic bone densitometer using ultrasonic backscattering,and realizes the functions of report print,database and waveform display.Finally,this paper builds the ultrasonic backscattering signal simulation system based on the ultrasonic backscatter theoretical models of cancellous bone,and validate the algorithms using the simulation system.The research of osteoporosis diagnosis based on ultrasonic backscatter signals is becoming highlighted in its pertinent research fields.This paper can promote the further research of the estimate algorithms of MTBS and the ultrasonic backscattering in bone density measurement.