| 摘要 |
The integrity (density) of discrete pieces of hard tissue (bones) in a patient may be determined by either one of two methods. In a first method, an impulse of energy is introduced into the bone, such as by striking the patient's bone, and the induced vibration is sensed and analyzed in order to compute the damping factor thereof, the damping factor being directly related to the density thereof. With this method, a transducer (26) is coupled to the bone (24) and its output is amplified by an amplifier (28) before input to a computer (30) which determines the damping factor. In a second method, a continuous energy input is provided to the bone, such as by utilizing a frequency generator (36) coupled to a power amplifier (38) whose output drives a transducer (40) such as a speaker for inducing a continuous vibration in the bone. This continuous vibration is measured with a transducer (26), an amplifier (28), and a damping factor calculated with a computer (30) as in the first method.
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