Mandibular cortical bone evaluation on cone beam computed tomography images of patients with bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to develop a technique for detecting cortical bone dimensional changes in patients with bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (BRONJ).


METHODS
Subjects with BRONJ who had cone-beam computed tomography imaging were selected, with age- and gender-matched controls. Mandibular cortical bone measurements to detect bisphosphonate-related cortical bone changes were made inferior to mental foramen, in 3 different ways: within a fixed sized rectangle, in a rectangle varying with the cortical height, and a ratio between area and height.


RESULTS
Twelve BRONJ cases and 66 controls were evaluated. The cortical bone measurements were significantly higher in cases than controls for all 3 techniques. The bone measurements were strongly associated with BRONJ case status (odds ratio 3.36-7.84). The inter-rater reliability coefficients were high for all techniques (0.71-0.90).


CONCLUSIONS
Mandibular cortical bone measurement is a potentially useful tool in the detection of bone dimensional changes caused by bisphosphonates.
Department of Oral Pathology and Diagnosis, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. sandratorres@ufrj.br
Sandra R
SR
Torres
Curtis S K
CS
Chen
Brian G
BG
Leroux
Peggy P
PP
Lee
Lars G
LG
Hollender
Eduardo C A
EC
Santos
Shane P
SP
Drew
Kuei-Ching
KC
Hung
Mark M
MM
Schubert
D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D059266:Bisphosphonate-Associated Osteonecrosis of the Jaw / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D015519:Bone Density; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D054893:Cone-Beam Computed Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008334:Mandible / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D008336:Mandibular Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric