The study of osteoporosis in past populations provides insight into the history and evolution of this condition.The Cortical Index is a relative measure of cortical bone often used for identifying individuals with age-related bone loss associated with osteoporosis. Current methods of measuring the Cortical Index involve radiography or cutting actual sections of long bones at the mid-shaft. We propose a new index, the Meul Index as means for estimating the Cortical Index without the use of radiography. Based on a preliminary study of 13 individuals consisting of 9 males, 3 females and one unknown sex, ranging in age from young to older adult, the Meul Index is highly correlated with the Cortical Index (r ¼ 0.903). The proposed Meul Index provides a nondestructive and inexpensive means for studying age-related bone loss in prehistoric and historic populations represented by skeletal samples.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.