Open AccessCan dermal thickness measured by ultrasound biomicroscopy assist in determining osteoporosis risk?
Author(s) -
Cagle Perri E.,
Dyson Mary,
Gajewski Byron,
Lukert Barbara
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
skin research and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.521
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1600-0846
pISSN - 0909-752X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0846.2007.00198.x
Subject(s) - medicine , osteoporosis , intraclass correlation , ultrasound , skin thickness , bone density , nuclear medicine , linear regression , densitometry , population , orthodontics , radiology , biomedical engineering , mathematics , environmental health , clinical psychology , statistics , psychometrics
Background and purpose: A study was undertaken to evaluate the relationship between dermal thickness and bone density. Ninety‐eight female subjects were recruited from a population of patients attending a university hospital osteoporosis clinic. The subject population ranged in age from 30 to 88 years with a mean age of 60. The weight range was from 91 to 274 pounds, mean 142 pounds. Methods: Dermal thickness measurements were taken at the right forearm using a Longport high resolution 20 MHz ultrasound scanner. Bone density measurements were taken using a GE Lunar Prodigy DXA scanner at both hips. Results: Statistical analysis using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of the skin measurements showed that the dermal measurement technique was highly reliable (CI=0.87, 0.92). Linear regression was used to examine the value of dermal thickness as a predictor of bone density. The correlation coefficient between dermal thickness and hip T score was statistically significant in the positive direction (corr.=0.304, P =0.001). We further investigated the relationship between dermal thickness and T scores using penalized splines. Conclusion: This analysis indicated that the strongest association with bone density occurred between 1.0 and 1.5 mm of dermal thickness. In those subjects identified as having osteoporosis dermal thickness measure of ≥1.04 corresponds to 4% of the subjects having osteoporosis. If dermal thickness is <1.04 then 23% have osteoporosis.