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This study reports a method to describe and analyze the structure of the trabecular pattern seen on radiographs of the distal radius. The structure is measured and related to the bone mineral density (BMD) of the lumbar spine measured by dual-photon absorptiometry. Radiographs of hand and wrist combined with additional information of the bone mineral density of the vertebrae serve as testing material. With a computer-aided imaging system, a part of the depicted radius is scanned. The image is filtered and segmented into a bilevel picture consisting of a light network with dark meshes. Seven features of the bilevel picture are measured and analyzed. It is shown that six features correlate significantly with the bone mineral density measured at the lumbar spine, although the correlations between the trabecular pattern and the BMD are too weak to allow precise predictions of BMD values for individuals. Nevertheless, the correlations confirm the existence of a relationship between the radiographic trabecular pattern and the bone mineral density of the lumbar spine. The method is worth being further developed for use on individual patients. It provides a noninvasive tool to make an objective and quantitative assessment of the trabecular pattern.

The trabecular pattern predicts the presence of osteoporosis just as well as age does. When combining the trabecular pattern with age, the sensitivity and specificity increased. Only the latter increase was statistically significant.