Minonzio JG, et al. - In this pilot cross-sectional study, researchers assessed the performance of a bidirectional axial transmission (BDAT) device in the one-third distal radius to discriminate between postmenopausal women who are fractured and non-fractured. They noticed significantly different femoral areal bone mineral density (aBMD) and both ultrasound parameters between non-traumatic fractures and the control group. They noticed discriminant cortical porosity (Ct.Po) for all non-traumatic fractures combined, for vertebral and wrist fractures whereas cortical thickness (Ct.Th) was discriminant for hip fractures only. They also found a significant relationship between increased Ct.Po and vertebral as well as wrist fractures when these fractures were not correlated with any measured aBMD variables. They found the association between inclined Ct.Po and all non-traumatic fractures combined independently of aBMD neck. An association between decreased Ct.Th and hip fractures independently of aBMD femur was also noted.