Diagnostic agreement of quantitative sonography of the calcaneus with dual X-ray absorptiometry of the spine and femur.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of our study was to evaluate the diagnostic agreement between quantitative sonography of the calcaneus and dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) of the spine and femur for revealing osteoporosis.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

In 1252 patients (795 women, 54.9+/-15 years old; 457 men, 50.5+/-15 years old [mean+/-SD]), bone mineral density measurements of the lumbar spine (posteroanterior, L1-L4) and the proximal femur (neck, trochanter, intertrochanteric region, total proximal femur, and Ward's triangle) and quantitative sonographic measurements of the stiffness of the calcaneus were performed. The presence of osteoporosis is defined, according to the World Health Organization criteria, as a T-score lower than -2.5. The percentage of patients below the threshold (prevalence of osteoporosis) was calculated for each imaging technique. The diagnostic agreement in identifying individuals as osteoporotic was assessed using kappa scores.

RESULTS

Forty-nine percent of the women and 42% of the men were classified as osteoporotic by quantitative sonography, 32% of women and 30% of men by DXA of the spine, and 23-54% of women and 16-54% of men by the different regions of interest revealed on femoral DXA. Kappa analysis showed the diagnostic agreement among these measures to be generally poor (kappa = .28-.41 [women] and .25-.45 [men]).

CONCLUSION

The considerable diagnostic disagreement between quantitative sonography and DXA could cause confusion in the daily practice of radiology and make establishing the correct diagnosis a difficult task. The choice of imaging technique influences which patients are diagnosed as osteoporotic.