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Bone mineral density in healthy normal women and reproducibility of measurements in spine and hip using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry

Charles Salt Research Centre, Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic and District Hospital, Oswestry, Shropshire SY10 7AG, UK ^* Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic and District Hospital, Oswestry, Shropshire SY10 7AG, UK

Correspondence: ^* Address correspondence to: Mr M. J. Haddaway, Principal Medical Physicist, Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic and District Hospital, Oswestry, Shropshire SY10 7AG, UK.

Bone mineral density (BMD) using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) has been measured in 394 healthy normal women. BMD is highest at the end of the 3rd decade and declines from 45 to 75 years by 0.0095 g/cm²/year in the lumbar spine and by 0.0052–0.0078 g/cm²/year in the upper femur depending on the site. BMD appears to increase in the 8th decade. Reproducibility (coefficient of variation (CV) of repeated measurements) was lowest in the lumbar spine (1.45%) and highest in Ward's triangle (4.29%). CV was not influenced by age at any site and by osteoporosis only in the femoral neck. BMD increased from L2 to L4 but the increase could not wholly be accounted for by the size of the vertebra, suggesting that the posterior elements were contributing to the observed increase of bone density.

Key Words: Bone mineral density • Reference values • Spine • Hip • DEXA

Received for publication December 6, 1990. Revision received July 16, 1991. Accepted for publication September 12, 1991.

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