Bone mineral density of the calcanei dissected from 30 cadavers - Correlation of the values measured by the DXA, QCT and USD methods

Abstract

The bone mineral density (BMD) of calcanei dissected from 30 cadavers (14 males and 16 females; ages 61 to 100) was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and quantitative computed tomography (QCT), while the stiffness was measured by ultrasound bone densitometry (USD). There was high correlation between BMD by DXA and average bone density by QCT (R = 0.94), but poor correlation between BMD by DXA and stiffness by USD (R = 0.55). However, the correlation coefficient of stiffness to BMD was much higher in the female calcanei (R = 0.74) than in the male calcanei (R = 0.32). Analyzing the three elements, stiffness, speed of sound (SOS) and broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA), it was clear that SOS rather than stiffness correlated strongly to BMD by DXA and to bone density of trabeculated bones by QCT (R = 0.618; 0.699, respectively). The value of BUA shows more relationship to the width of the calcanei than the area of X-ray projection from the side.