title: Reproducibility of metacarpophalangeal bone mass measurements obtained by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry in healthy volunteers and patients with early arthritis.
abstract: The prognostic value of measuring hand bone mineral density (BMD) in patients with early arthritis (EA) has been recently assessed. In this work, we evaluate the reproducibility of measuring juxta-articular BMD by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) at the second to fifth metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joints. We obtained whole hand (WH) and MCP joint BMD measurements from 16 healthy subjects and from 22 patients with EA. The coefficient of variation, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and smallest detectable difference (SDD) were calculated. The coefficient of variation ranged from 1.3% to 0.7% at MCP joints and from 1.4% to 0.9% in the WH measurements, respectively. The intra- and interobserver ICC for both WH and MCP joints ranged from 0.97 to 0.99. The SDD at the different anatomical locations analyzed ranged from 0.006 to 0.022 g/cm2 in healthy controls and from 0.005 to 0.010 g/cm2 in EA. Interestingly, patients who fulfilled rheumatoid arthritis criteria showed a lower bone mass than those with undifferentiated arthritis. Therefore, BMD measurements obtained by DXA at MCP joints were reproducible and it might be useful in the study of patients with EA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Hospital de la Princesa, Universidad Autónoma, Madrid, Spain. scastas@tiscali.es
authors.forename: Santos
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Castañeda
authors.forename: Isidoro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: González-Alvaro
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Salvanés
authors.forename: María Luisa
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Quintana
authors.forename: Armando
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Laffon
authors.forename: J Alberto
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: García-Vadillo
mesh_terms: D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon / Q000379:methods*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001168:Arthritis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015519:Bone Density; D005260:Female; D050276:Hand Bones; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008662:Metacarpophalangeal Joint; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results