Influence of cortical endplate on speed of sound in bovine femoral trabecular bone in vitro

Abstract

Speed of sound (SOS) was measured in 14 bovine femoral trabecular bone samples with and without the cortical endplates with various thicknesses of 1.00, 1.31, 1.47, 1.75, and 2.00 mm. The presence of the cortical endplates resulted in an increase in the mean SOS of 16 m/s (þ0.9%) to 91 m/s (þ5.3%). The mean SOS measured in the samples with and without the cortical endplates exhibited similar significant correlations with apparent bone density (r ¼ 0.86-0.91). All the SOS measurements were also found to be highly correlated with each other (r ¼ 0.89-0.99).