Lateralized mineral content and density in distal forearm bones in right-handed men and women: relation of structure to function.
To test whether handedness has an asymmetric effect on distal forearm bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD), and whether there is an effect of sex on these variables, the mean BMCs and BMDs in bilateral distal forearms were compared in right-handed men and women. It was expected that the BMC and BMD would be higher on the right than the left side in right-handers. The present results were consistent with this working hypothesis. Namely, the right-BMCs were found to be significantly higher than left-BMCs for all regions of the bones studied. There were no sex differences either for the right-left BMCs or for the right-left BMDs. The results indicated that i) the relation of structure to function would also be valid outside the brain, ii) the mean BMCs, but not BMDs, were significantly higher in the right than the left arm at different distal forearm regions, and iii) there were no significant sex differences in the distal-forearm BMCs and BMDs.
Department of Physiology, Medical School, Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey. akarsedat@hotmail.com
Sedat
S
Akar
Haktan
H
Sivrikaya
Abdullah
A
Canikli
Erhan
E
Varoğlu
D000328:Adult; D015519:Bone Density; D005260:Female; D005542:Forearm; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012727:Sex Characteristics