BODY-COMPOSITION AND BONE-MINERAL DENSITY OF CHINESE WOMEN WITH VERTEBRAL FRACTURE

This study was designed to compare the body composition and bone miner al density measurements (BMD) in Chinese women with vertebral fracture and normal controls, A total of 400 community dwelling Chinese women aged 70-79 years old were studied, Vertebral height ratios were calcul ated from lateral thoracic and lumbar spine X-rays and subjects were c lassified into definite cases (n = 122), doubtful cases (n = 138) and normal controls (n = 140), Bone mineral density and body composition m easurements were made by dual X-ray densitometry, The height, fat mass , lean mass, and BMD at all sites were significantly lower in patients with definite fracture than normal controls, Nevertheless, BMD at the hip was more predictive of vertebral fracture than BMD at the spine, the odds ratio in the lowest quartile of hip BMD being 3.8 (95% C.I. = 1.3 to 10.9), Finally, the extent of spinal deformity was poorly pred icted by a combination of the anthropometric and BMD measurements, as only 12% of the total variance in TD1 was accounted for. (C) 1996 by E lsevier Science Inc.