BONE MINERAL DENSITY DISCORDANCES IN FEMALES: A COMPARISON OF PREMENOPAUSAL AND NON-GERIATRIC POSTMENOPAUSAL ADULT POPULATIONS

SEVIN AYAZ¹, SALIH SINAN GÜLTEKIN², ALPER DILLI³, ÜMIT YAŞAR AYAZ⁴

¹Department of Medical Imaging Techniques, Toros University, Vocational School, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Mersin State Hospital, Mersin, Turkey - ²Department of Nuclear Medicine, Dişkapi Yildirim Beyazit Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey - ³Department of Radiology, Dişkapi Yildirim Beyazit Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey - ⁴Department of Radiology, Mersin Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Mersin, Turkey

Introduction: Bone mineral density (BMD) discordance between lumbar and femoral T-scores can cause difficulties in the interpretation of dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) results. We aimed to compare BMD discordance in premenopausal and non geriatric (early) postmenopausal women.

Materials and methods: Lumbar spine (L1-4) and femoral neck BMD measurements of premenopausal (n = 236/944) and postmenopausal (n = 708/944) women were performed by DXA. For both groups the mean age, BMD, T-scores, BMI, osteopenia- osteoporosis rates, concordance-discordance rates and the rates of the regions with lower T-scores were obtained and compared.

Results: Osteopenia and osteoporosis were more frequent in postmenopausal women than in premenopausal women (P < 0.05). Minor discordance rates were 26.3% (n = 62/236) in premenopausal women and 42.4% (n = 300/708) in postmenopausal ones (P < 0.05), whereas major discordance rates were 0% (n = 0/236) and 2.5% (n = 18/708), respectively (P < 0.05). In discordant cases of postmenopausal group, the rate of lumbar regions with lower T-scores was statistically higher than those of premenopausal group (P < 0.05). The majority (63.5%, n = 202/318) of postmenopausal women with T-score discordances had lower lumbar T-scores.

Conclusion: Because of higher prevalence of discordance in non-geriatric postmenopausal women, we recommend together lumbar and femoral BMD measurements for the diagnosis of osteopenia and osteoporosis.