The influence of exogenous fat and water on lumbar spine bone mineral density in healthy volunteers.
OBJECTIVE
Changes in human body composition can affect the accuracy of spine bone mineral density (BMD) measurements. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether fat and water in the soft tissue of the abdomen influence lumbar spine BMD measurements obtained using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA).


METHODS
Duplicate BMD measurements were carried out on healthy volunteers (10 men and 10 women) and the Hologic anthropomorphic spine phantom had on the same day before and after placement of following 3 materials in the abdominal area: lard 900 g, 1.5 cm thick; oil 1.4 liters in a vinyl bag; and water 1.2 liters in a vinyl bag.


RESULTS
In the case of human participants, following the placement of exogenous water to mimic extracellular fluid (ECF), there was a significant decrease in lumbar spine BMD (-0.012 g/cm², p=0.006), whereas the placement of exogenous lard and oil to mimic abdominal fat produced a slight increase in lumbar spine BMD (0.006 g/cm², p=0.301; 0.008 g/cm², p=0.250, respectively). The average percentage of lumbar spine BMD change with and without exogenous lard, oil, and water showed increase of 0.51%, and 0.67%, and decrease of 1.02%, respectively. Using the phantom, BMD decreased with the placement of both lard (-0.002 g/cm², p=0.699) and water (-0.006 g/cm², p=0.153); however, there was no difference in BMD after oil placement.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that in cases where changes in fat and ECF volume are similar, ECF exerts a greater influence than fat on DXA lumbar BMD measurements.
Department of Family Practice and Community Health, Ajou University School of Medicine, 164 Worldcup-ro, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon 443-721, Korea.
Kyu-Nam
KN
Kim
Bom-Taeck
BT
Kim
Kwang-Min
KM
Kim
Sat-Byul
SB
Park
Nam-Seok
NS
Joo
Sang Hyeon
SH
Je
Young-Sang
YS
Kim
Duck-Joo
DJ
Lee
D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon; D000328:Adult; D015519:Bone Density / Q000187:drug effects*; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000494:pharmacology; D005223:Fats / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D014867:Water / Q000494:pharmacology*
D004041:Dietary Fats; D005223:Fats; D014867:Water; C029310:lard