Forearm bone mass and biochemical markers of bone remodelling in normal Chinese women

Abstract

Abstract:We studied bone mineral content and density (BMC/BMD) and bone turnover markers in normal Chinese women from the age of 20 to 80 years and compared the data with those for normal women from the Western part of the world (Denmark). In all subjects (5 at each age; n = 305) BMC and BMD were determined at three sites of the nondominant forearm with single X-ray absorptiometry (SXA). In addition, 10 women had five repeated measurements to determine the reproducibility of the equipment, demonstrating coefficients of variation of 1%-2% depending on the measurement site. The Chinese premenopausal women were on the average heavier (1 kg) than the postmenopausal women, but they were also taller (6 cm). The postmenopausal women had highly significantly less bone mass than the premenopausal women; 15% at the 88 site, 25% at the 8-mmdistal site, and 35% at the ultradistal site. At age 50, bone mass in Chinese women was very similar to that of a comparable group of Danish women. After age 50, bone loss accelerated and the rate of loss seemed more rapid in the Chinese than in the Danish women. Within the first 5 postmenopausal years, the most cortical part decreased by approximately 3.9%, the mixed cortical and trabecular site by 9.5%, and the mainly trabecular site by 16.2%. In the following 5 years the decreases were 6.3%, 5.5%, and 6.6%, respectively, and 5.6%, 11.3%, and 8.9% for year 11-15 after menopause. The bone decrement continued throughout the 25th year of menopause, and except for the ultradistal site, the rate of loss did not change very much. The postmenopausal women had highly significantly higher levels of all bone turnover markers than premenopausal women. The markers stayed high at all ages. We conclude that the present study gives the normal values of Chinese women's bone mass at three sites of the distal forearm. The data were collected in a way which allows them to be used as reference for normal Chinese women. The data demonstrate that women from the East and West are relatively similar in terms of bone mass. Offprint requests to: B.

Differences in precision in bone mineral density measured by SXA and DXA: the NOREPOS study

“…A larger sample is needed to clarify the effect of the level of BMD on the precision in BMD for each gender. On the other hand it was large compared to most other studies investigating precision in BMD measurements [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Although bone densitometry by SXA is no longer commonly used in clinical practice anymore, it has been and still is used in a number of epidemiological studies [34][35][36][37].…”

“…Previous studies addressing this tissue have included 15 or fewer participants [11][12][13] with one exception; a study that included 68 women with duplicate measurements [14].…”