Broadband ultrasound attention reference database for southeast Asian males and females

The objective of this study was to establish the broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA) measurements of the calcaneum for Southeast Asian males and females. A database was used to draw the reference curve for the Southeast Asian male and female population.

The database included 366 healthy females and 236 healthy males. We measured the BUA values of the left heel using the Contact Ultrasound Bone Analyser (CUBA) clinical system.

The mean difference between Southeast Asian males and Caucasian males was 9.3 dB MHz-1 and that for females was 5.0 dB MHz-1. The standard deviations (SDs) for Southeast Asian female and male normative values were 17.43 and 20.10, respectively. This is comparable with the SD for the McCue Caucasian female and male normative data of 16.54 and 17.45 respectively.

The study shows that the Southeast Asian population has a significantly lower normative value than the Caucasian population. This BUA reference database obtained will allow for more accurate determination of Southeast Asian patients at risk of osteoporosis.