Comparisons of bone mass measurements on various skeletal sites including quantitative ultrasonography of the calcaneus for assessing age-related losses, their correlations, and diagnostic agreement using the Japanese and WHO criteria for osteoporosis.

PURPOSE

The aim of this study was to compare age-related bone losses and correlations among several bone mass measurements and to evaluate diagnostic agreement among them using the Japanese and WHO criteria for osteoporosis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A total of 846 women (mean +/- SD: age 54 +/- 9 years) were evaluated. Bone mineral densities of the lumbar spine, femoral neck, and calcaneus were measured by dual X-ray absorptiometry and distal radius by peripheral computed tomography. Quantitative ultrasonography (QUS) parameters of the calcaneus were also measured. The age-related bone losses after 50 years of age and correlations among bone mass results were evaluated using linear regression analysis. Diagnostic agreement was evaluated by kappa statistics.

RESULTS

The annual losses ranged from 1.0% to 1.6%. The correlation coefficients ranged from 0.54 to 0.78. The kappa scores ranged from 0.52 to 0.30 for all subjects using the Japanese criteria and from 0.38 to 0.15 using the WHO criteria.

CONCLUSION

Bone mass measurements including QUS on various skeletal sites documented age-related changes similarly, and their bone masses correlated moderately. The diagnostic agreements among them were fair to poor. To screen out women with a risk of osteoporosis, it is important to choose which technique to use and which skeletal site to measure.