Patel Rajesh, Blake Glen M, Fogelman Ignac
Department of Biosurgery and Surgical Technology, Division of Surgery, Oncology, Reproductive Biology, and Anaesthethetics, Imperial College Faculty of Medicine, Charing Cross Campus, Fulham Palace Road, London, W6 8RF, UK.
Calcif Tissue Int. 2007 Dec;81(6):442-9. doi: 10.1007/s00223-007-9081-6. Epub 2007 Nov 17.
Measurement of skin thickness has been proposed as a method of predicting low bone mineral density (BMD) and the consequent risk of osteoporotic fracture in postmenopausal women. The Episcan I-100 device is a new type of ultrasound device that uses high-frequency (20 MHz) ultrasound to measure skin thickness using a small probe placed on the skin. The aims of this study were to investigate whether there is any correlation between skin thickness as measured by ultrasound and BMD as measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, to establish whether patients with osteoporotic fractures have reduced skin thickness, and to investigate the relationship between skin thickness and clinical risk factors for osteoporosis. Short-term precision based on duplicate measurements on 132 patients gave a coefficient of variation of 3.2%. Small but statistically significant correlations between skin thickness measurements and BMD measurements at axial and peripheral sites were observed (r = 0.21-0.29, P < 0.0001). An odds ratio of 1.42 was found for identifying patients with a prevalent fracture at any skeletal site, suggesting that skin thickness measurements can discriminate patients with fractures. ROC analyses also demonstrated the ability of skin thickness measurements to discriminate fracture patients from controls. When measured by the decrease in Z-score, clinical risk factors for low BMD were found to affect skin thickness measurements to a similar extent as spine and hip BMD measurements. Skin thickness measurements have limited utility in identifying patients with low bone mass.
测量皮肤厚度已被提议作为预测绝经后女性低骨矿物质密度（BMD）及随后骨质疏松性骨折风险的一种方法。Episcan I - 100设备是一种新型超声设备，它使用高频（20兆赫）超声，通过放置在皮肤上的小探头来测量皮肤厚度。本研究的目的是调查超声测量的皮肤厚度与双能X线吸收法测量的BMD之间是否存在相关性，确定骨质疏松性骨折患者的皮肤厚度是否降低，并研究皮肤厚度与骨质疏松临床风险因素之间的关系。基于对132名患者进行重复测量的短期精密度给出了3.2%的变异系数。观察到在轴向和外周部位，皮肤厚度测量值与BMD测量值之间存在小但具有统计学意义的相关性（r = 0.21 - 0.29，P < 0.0001）。发现识别任何骨骼部位有既往骨折患者的优势比为1.42，这表明皮肤厚度测量可以区分骨折患者。受试者工作特征（ROC）分析也证明了皮肤厚度测量能够区分骨折患者和对照者。当通过Z评分的降低来衡量时，发现低BMD的临床风险因素对皮肤厚度测量的影响程度与脊柱和髋部BMD测量相似。皮肤厚度测量在识别低骨量患者方面的效用有限。
