title: Comparison of the femoral neck bone density, quantitative ultrasound and bone density of the heel between dominant and non-dominant side.
abstract: Our study was initiated to evaluate whether there are differences between the two sides, depending on hand dominance, in densitometry values and quantitative ultrasound parameters (QUS) of the lower limb. One hundred and six women and 44 men were involved. The hand dominance was determined by interview. The bone mineral density (BMD) of the left and the right femoral necks and the calcanei were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). The QUS examination consisted of measuring the attenuation (BUA), the speed of the ultrasound (SOS) and quantitative ultrasound index (QUI) transversing the left and right calcanei. The density of the neck of femur of the non-dominant side did not differ from that of the dominant side. On the other hand, BMD, BUA and the QUI of the calcaneus were higher on the non-dominant side in both genders (p<0.05 for each parameter). No similar differences were seen for the SOS values. Our study has confirmed the side-to-side differences of the calcaneus in both genders, lower values were found on the dominant side. No similar differences were seen on the femur. The AUC values seemed to be higher on the dominant side, however, these differences were not strictly significant. In the case of peripheral site (heel) measurements, the practical significance of our observations is that they raise the possibility of performing peripheral DXA and QUS examinations of the calcaneus on the dominant side of the patient according to handedness.
authors.affiliation: First Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Semmelweis University, Korányi Sándor Str. 2/a, Budapest H-1083, Hungary.
authors.forename: Szilvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mészáros
authors.forename: Viktória
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ferencz
authors.forename: Emôke
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Csupor
authors.forename: Adám
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mester
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hosszú
authors.forename: Edit
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tóth
authors.forename: Csaba
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Horváth
mesh_terms: D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D019540:Area Under Curve; D015519:Bone Density; D002111:Calcaneus / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005272:Femur Neck / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D050723:Fractures, Bone / Q000503:physiopathology; D006365:Heel / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D017698:Postmenopause; D017697:Premenopause; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design; D012737:Sex Factors; D018084:Ultrasonography, Interventional