Comparison of Calcaneal Ultrasound T-Scores With Vertebral and Proximal Femur DXA T-Scores in Men

Abstract

The aim of the study was to compare the T-scores of quantitative ultrasound (QUS) of the calcaneus with those of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) of the lumbar spine and hip in men. We studied on sixty-four male patients (mean age 52.47 + 16.51 years). BMD T-score at the lumbar spine and femoral neck correlated positively with QUS T-score of the calcaneus (r=0.258, p<0.005 and r=0.333, p<0.001 respectively). The kappa score for osteoporosis were 0.16 and 0.27 for QUS T-scores versus spinal and femoral DXA T-scores. With the “–2.5” cut-off level used, sensitivity and specificity of QUS T-score in detecting osteoporosis were 25% and 96% at the lumbar spine, were 0% and 91% at the femoral neck and were 25% and 93% at the total hip. We conclude that QUS T-score has a weak correlation with DXA T-score at the lumbar spine and a moderate correlation with DXA T-score at the femoral neck; QUS has a very low sensitivity and concordance for the diagnosis of osteoporosis compared with spinal and femoral DXA in men.

Keywords

• Quantitative ultrasound; dual X-ray absorptiometry ; T-score
• male
• osteoporosis