Postmenopausal women with Colles' fracture have bone mineral density values similar to those of controls when measured with calcaneus quantitative ultrasound

Sosa, M.; Saavedra, P.; Gómez-Alonso, C.; Mosquera, J.; Torrijos, A.; Muñoz-Torres, M.; Valero Díaz de la Madrid, C.; Díaz Curiel, M.; Martínez Díaz Guerra, G.; Pérez-Cano, R.; Alegre, J.; Del Pino, J.; GIUMO Study Group,

doi:10.1016/j.ejim.2005.06.012

« Previous Next »European Journal of Internal Medicine
Volume 16, Issue 8 , Pages 561-566, December 2005

Postmenopausal women with Colles' fracture have bone mineral density values similar to those of controls when measured with calcaneus quantitative ultrasound

M. Sosa
- University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical and Surgery Sciences, Hospital University Insular, Service of Internal Medicine, Bone Metabolic Unit, Spain
- Corresponding author. University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Health Sciences Centre, Department of Medical and Surgery Sciences, Bone Metabolic Unit, Box 550, 35080 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain. Tel.: +34 928451456; fax: +34 928451428.
P. Saavedra
- University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Department of Mathematics, Spain
C. Gómez-Alonso
J. Mosquera
A. Torrijos
M. Muñoz-Torres
C. Valero Díaz de la Madrid
M. Díaz Curiel
G. Martínez Díaz Guerra
R. Pérez-Cano
J. Alegre
J. Del Pino
GIUMO Study Group
- Other members of the GIUMO Study Group. J. González-Macías, J. Olmos, J. Cannata Andía, Ana Castro Lago, G. Alonso, M.J. Moro, F. Hawkins Carranza, E. Jódar Gimeno, M.J. Gómez de Tejada, R. Pérez Temprano, B. Álvarez Lario, J.L. Alonso Valdivieso, C. Montilla, L. Corral-Goudiño, D. Hernández Hernández, J. Sarmiento Santana.

Received 11 November 2004; received in revised form 8 April 2005; accepted 2 June 2005.

Abstract

Background

It is a matter of controversy whether or not Colles' fracture is an osteoporotic fracture. Indeed, the usefulness of quantitative ultrasound in distinguishing Colles' fracture from normal fractures is also unclear.

Methods

A cross-sectional case-control study was done on 469 postmenopausal Spanish women, 121 with Colles' fracture and 348 controls. Assessment of risk factors for osteoporosis and measurement of calcaneus quantitative ultrasound were carried out using a Sahara ®, Hologic ® device.

Results

Patients with Colles' fracture had BUA, SOS, and QUI values that were similar to those of controls, and no statistically significant differences were found. We estimated ROC curves for SOS and a score based on a linear combination of height and SOS (SH-Score). The areas under both curves were 0.56 and 0.61, respectively, which was statistically significant. To obtain 5% false-negative and 10% false-positive figures, the T-score cut-off for SOS was −2.45 and −0.045, respectively. Of these, only 9.2% were classified as high risk and 11% as low risk with 79.8% undetermined.

Conclusions

Patients with Colles' fracture had BUA, SOS, and QUI values that were similar to those of controls. Nevertheless, ROC curves calculated by a combination of height and SOS showed that quantitative calcaneus ultrasound may be a useful tool for identifying postmenopausal women with Colles' fracture. These results indicate that measuring bone mineral density with ultrasound only captures limited aspects of the pathophysiology of Colles' fractures.

Keywords: Colles' fracture, Forearm, Quantitative ultrasound, Osteoporosis, Osteopenia, ROC curves, Postmenopausal women