The bone mineral density (BMD) of the lumbar spine and proximal femur was determined in 406 osteoporotic females with vertebral fractures and 50 osteoporotic females with hip fractures from 48 to 86 years of age. These results were compared with those obtained in a group of 120 control women from 20 to 80 years of age. In the controls we measured also the BMD of the vertebral bodies in lateral position, total skeleton and total body calcium to obtain the normal references values. The BMD was

more »

... ermined by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry with a Lunar DPX-L equipment. The percentage fall of the BMD in the normal population between the 3rd and 8th decades of age was greater on spine in lateral (-36%) than in antero-posterior position (-22%) and femoral neck (-22%), while the lesser diminution occurred in the total skeleton (-13%) and total body calcium (-16%) (Figure 1). The results obtained were similar to the values observed in studies performed in United States and Europe (Table 1). The mean BMD of the spine (L2-L4) in osteoporotic women with vertebral fractures was 0.78 +/- 0.09 g/cm2. The BMD of the femoral neck in patients with hip fractures was 0.61 +/- 0.07 g/cm2 (Table 2). The osteoporotic patients had significantly lower BMDs in spine and femur (p < 0.001) compared to age-matched controls. These differences were -21% for L2-L4 and -25% for femoral BMD.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)