Bone density, microarchitecture and stiffness in Caucasian and Caribbean Hispanic postmenopausal American women.
Hispanic Americans of Caribbean origin are a fast-growing subset of the US population, but there are no studies on bone density, microstructure and biomechanical integrity in this minority group. In this study, we aimed to compare Caucasian and Caribbean Hispanic postmenopausal American women with respect to these characteristics. Thirty-three Caribbean Hispanics were age-matched to thirty-three Caucasian postmenopausal women. At the lumbar spine, the Hispanic women had significantly lower areal bone mineral density (aBMD). At the radius by high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT), there were minimal differences between Hispanic and Caucasian women. At the tibia, Hispanic women had lower trabecular volumetric bone density and trabecular number, and higher trabecular separation. Individual trabecula segmentation (ITS) analyses indicated that at the tibia, Hispanic women not only had significantly lower bone volume fraction, but also had significantly lower rod bone volume fraction, plate trabecular number, rod trabecular number and lower plate-plate, plate-rod and rod-rod junction densities compared to Caucasian women. The differences in bone quantity and quality contributed to lower whole bone stiffness at the radius, and both whole bone and trabecular bone stiffness at the tibia in Hispanic women. In conclusion, Hispanic women had poorer bone mechanical and microarchitectural properties than Caucasian women, especially at the load-bearing distal tibia.
Bone Bioengineering Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University , New York, USA.
Bin
B
Zhou
Bone Bioengineering Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University , New York, USA.
Ji
J
Wang
Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, Columbia University , New York, USA.
Emily M
EM
Stein
Bone Bioengineering Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University , New York, USA ; Department of Orthopedic Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine Shihezi University , Shihezi, Xinjiang, China.
Zhendong
Z
Zhang
Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, Columbia University , New York, USA.
Kyle K
KK
Nishiyama
Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, Columbia University , New York, USA.
Chiyuan A
CA
Zhang
Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, Columbia University , New York, USA.
Thomas L
TL
Nickolas
Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, Columbia University , New York, USA.
Elizabeth
E
Shane
Bone Bioengineering Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University , New York, USA.
X Edward
XE
Guo