Reliability of Phase Velocity Measurements of Flexural Acoustic Waves in the Human Tibia In-Vivo

Florian Vogl, Karin Schnüriger, Hans Gerber and William R Taylor

PLOS ONE, 2016, vol. 11, issue 3, 1-12

Abstract: Purpose: Axial-transmission acoustics have shown to be a promising technique to measure individual bone properties and detect bone pathologies. With the ultimate goal being the in-vivo application of such systems, quantification of the key aspects governing the reliability is crucial to bring this method towards clinical use. Materials and Methods: This work presents a systematic reliability study quantifying the sources of variability and their magnitudes of in-vivo measurements using axial-transmission acoustics. 42 healthy subjects were measured by an experienced operator twice per week, over a four-month period, resulting in over 150000 wave measurements. In a complementary study to assess the influence of different operators performing the measurements, 10 novice operators were trained, and each measured 5 subjects on a single occasion, using the same measurement protocol as in the first part of the study. Results: The estimated standard error for the measurement protocol used to collect the study data was ∼ 17 m/s (∼ 4% of the grand mean) and the index of dependability, as a measure of reliability, was Φ = 0.81. It was shown that the method is suitable for multi-operator use and that the reliability can be improved efficiently by additional measurements with device repositioning, while additional measurements without repositioning cannot improve the reliability substantially. Phase velocity values were found to be significantly higher in males than in females (p

Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0152417

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0152417

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