Bone mineral density of the spine and proximal femur in normal and osteoporotic subjects in Japan.

Bone mineral density (BMD) of the spine and proximal femur in Japanese men and women was investigated with dual photon absorptiometry, using gadolinium-153. Peak bone mass of the spine (L2-4) was 1.20 g/cm2 in women which was lower than that of men by 4.7%, whereas BMD of the femoral neck was 0.91 g/cm2 in women and lower than in men by 13.3%. Bone loss was faster in postmenopausal women than in men of the corresponding age, and the regressions of BMD on age were 6.7-times higher at L2-4 and 5.1-times higher at the femoral neck than in men. Such rates of loss became slower both in the lumbar spine and proximal femur in women after 70 years of age, but the density at the proximal femur kept decreasing in men after 70 years of age. Fracture thresholds of each region were evaluated at the 90th percentile for BMD of L2-4 in patients with vertebral crush fractures and for BMD of the proximal femur in patients with hip fractures. The fracture threshold was 0.97 g/cm2 at the spine and 0.67 g/cm2 at the femoral neck in women. BMD values at the spine and proximal femur in normal Japanese men and women appear to be lower than those in white American control population.