title: Have panoramic indices the power to identify women with low BMD at the axial skeleton?
abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether panoramic mandibular indices i.e. mandibular cortical width (MCW), alveolar bone resorption degree (M/M ratio) and panoramic mandibular index (PMI) can be used as pre-selection tests to identify women with low bone mineral density (BMD) at the axial skeleton. MCW, PMI and M/M ratio were measured on dental panoramic radiographs in a group of 151 postmenopausal women aged 38-80 years. BMD at the lumbar spine and hip was measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. BMD values were categorized as normal, osteopenic or osteoporotic according to the WHO classification. ROC analysis was used to determine cut-off values for MCW. MCW performed better than PMI and M/M ratio in its power to differentiate women with osteopenia or osteoporosis from healthy subjects. Cut-off values for the MCW estimated to detect women with T-score < -1 and those with T-score ≤ -2.5 identified a total of 45% and 34% of subjects respectively. Sensitivity and specificity was found to be low ranging between 55 and 70 for both cut-off values. Panoramic indices appear to have limited power in their ability to identify women with low BMD at the axial skeleton.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, P.O. Box 2208, Iraklion 71003, Crete, Greece. damilaki@med.uoc.gr
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Damilakis
authors.forename: Konstantinos
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vlasiadis
mesh_terms: D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon / Q000379:methods*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016301:Alveolar Bone Loss / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D015519:Bone Density; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D008334:Mandible / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D008336:Mandibular Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D015663:Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D011862:Radiography, Panoramic / Q000592:standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity