title: Identifying elderly women with osteoporosis by spinal dual X-ray absorptiometry, calcaneal quantitative ultrasound and spinal quantitative computed tomography: a comparative study.
abstract: The ability of spinal dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), calcaneal quantitative ultrasound (QUS) and spinal quantitative computed tomography (QCT) to identify women with osteoporosis within the GISELA study was evaluated in 43 women, aged 62-87 years. Osteoporosis was defined as a T-score below or equal to -2.5 using DXA (femoral neck). To determine the performance of each method, the sensitivity, specificity and area under the curve (by means of a receiver operating characteristic [ROC] analysis) were calculated. The median T-scores from the measurements differed significantly (p < 0.0001). DXA (spine) identified 75% of women with osteoporosis; QUS and QCT identified 100%. The specificity was 89% for DXA (spine), 66% for QUS and 29% for QCT. ROC analysis showed that all three methods are qualified to identify women with osteoporosis; however, the different sensitivities and specificities of the methods, as well as the thresholds used for diagnosing osteoporosis have to be considered.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Nutritional Science, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany.
authors.forename: Bianca
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Edelmann-Schäfer
authors.forename: Lars Daniel
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Berthold
authors.forename: Hilmar
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Stracke
authors.forename: Petra Maria
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Lührmann
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Neuhäuser-Berthold
mesh_terms: D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon / Q000379:methods*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002111:Calcaneus / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015663:Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013122:Spinal Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*; D014463:Ultrasonography