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Bone Abstracts (2013) 1 PP322 | DOI: 10.1530/boneabs.1.PP322

ECTS2013 Poster Presentations Osteoporosis: evaluation and imaging (31 abstracts)

Comparative assessment of bone mineral density of the femoral neck between dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and a new ultrasonic method

Francesco Conversano 1 , Ernesto Casciaro 1 , Antonio Greco 1 , Paola Pisani 1 , Roberto Franchini 1 , Antonella Grimaldi 2 , Eugenio Quarta 2 , Maurizio Muratore 2 & Sergio Casciaro 1


1National Research Council, Institute of Clinical Physiology, Lecce, Italy; 2O.U. of Rheumatology, Galateo Hospital, San Cesario di Lecce, ASL-LE, Lecce, Italy.


Introduction: Recently reported high incidences of hip fractures emphasize the need of more effective methods for osteoporosis diagnosis, currently performed essentially by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) examinations of the proximal femur. However, high costs and radiation-related issues do not allow DXA employment for population mass screenings. Aim of this study is to carry out a preliminary clinical validation of a new ultrasound (US)-based method to perform femoral bone densitometry at lower costs and without using X-rays.

Methods: A cohort of 90 female patients was recruited according to the following criteria: 60–80 years of age, BMI ≤40 kg/m2, no severe deambulation impairments, medical prescription for a femoral DXA, signed informed consent. All the enrolled patients underwent two examinations: a conventional femoral DXA (Hologic Discovery) and an US scan of proximal femur. US data were analyzed by a novel algorithm that processed both echographic images and unfiltered ‘raw’ signals and calculated the same diagnostic parameters provided by DXA (bone mineral density (BMD), T-score, Z-score). Diagnostic accuracy of obtained results was evaluated through a direct comparison with DXA output as a function of patient age and BMI.

Results: For 82.2% of the patients US diagnosis (osteoporotic, osteopenic, and healthy) was the same of the corresponding DXA one. Pearson correlation coefficient (r) between DXA and US measurements was evaluated for each diagnostic parameter, obtaining the following results: r=0.68 (P<0.001) for BMD, r=0.68 (P<0.001) for T-score and r=0.71 (P<0.001) for Z-score, without significant variations as a function of age nor BMI.

Conclusions: The proposed US approach to femoral densitometry showed a very good correlation with DXA measurements performed at the same site, indicating that this innovative non-ionizing method could become extremely useful for early osteoporosis diagnosis through population mass screenings.

Volume 1

European Calcified Tissue Society Congress 2013

Lisbon, Portugal
18 May 2013 - 22 May 2013

European Calcified Tissue Society 

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