Quantitative Ultrasound and Femur Neck Strength
aBMD measured by DXA is not a good predictor of femoral neck fracture. Since, most of the people with BMD in range of osteopenia (-1 to -2.5) are prone for fracture. Grimal Q et al. has tried in small subset of elderly females using Quantitiative ultrasound (QUS) to assess the cortical and trabecular bone mass. The parameter measured was transmission time‐of‐flight (TOF). These subjects also had QCT along with DXA measurement. Mechanical strength of bone was also assessed. In this small subset, TOF correlated to strength (R2 = 0.79). This study has opened new avenue for research and assessment of femoral neck bone strength and fracture risk.
For further details please read this article : Quantitative ultrasound of cortical bone in the femoral neck predicts femur strength: Results of a pilot study. Quentin Grimal, Julien Grondin, Sandra Guérard, Reinhard Barkmann, Klaus Engelke, Claus‐C Glüer, Pascal Laugier. JBMR 28;302-312: 2013