APPENDICULAR CORTICAL BONE LOSS AFTER AGE 65 - SEX-DEPENDENT EVENT

Distal radius photodensitometric and second metacarpal radiogrammetric measurements were obtained from computerized analyses of standard han d X-Ray films of 296 Caucasian subjects (189 women and 107 men). This sample included 134 subjects greater than or equal to 65 years old (75 women and 59 men). Distal radius bone density and metacarpal index sh owed a significant linear decrease with age in both sexes. Rates of bo ne loss, calculated from the regression curves, were -0.7% per year in women and -0.5% per year in men by distal radial photodensitometry, a nd -0.49% per year in women and -0.33% per year in men by metacarpal r adiogrammetry. In the elderly subgroup, women greater than or equal to 65 years of age showed an even faster bone loss, with an annual decre ase of -1.4% by distal radial photodensitometry. Conversely, men great er than or equal to 65 years of age had no significant bone loss, not even by metacarpal radiogrammetry. In conclusion, these data suggest t hat appendicular cortical bone loss occurs at a higher rate in elderly females than in the elderly males, both at the distal radial and at t he metacarpal site.