CT SCAN TEXTURE ANALYSIS OF THE DISTAL RADIUS INFLUENCE OF AGE AND MENOPAUSAL STATUS

Objectives: to gain information on bone architecture by performing bon e texture analysis in a sample of women covering a broad age range, Pa tients and methods: We studied 29 healthy women aged 23 to 80 years (5 5 +/- 18 years), 19 of whom were postmenopausal, None was taking drugs known to influence bone mass or bone metabolism, Computed tomography of the nondominant-distal radius was performed with 1 mm slice thickne ss and 1 mm gap, Four consecutive coronal and four consecutive axial s ections were selected for each patient and entered into a PC-type comp uter, Bone texture was evaluated using grey level run length analysis (five parameters), differential local variation analysis (four paramet ers), fractal analysis (two parameters), trabecular network extraction and three-dimensional relief characterization. The mean of each study parameter for the four coronal sections and for the four axial sectio ns was calculated, Absorptiometry was done in 16 patients, Results : L inear correlations with age were strongest (P < 0.001) for parameters measured on coronal sections by trabecular network extraction, i.e., t rabecular bone volume (r = -0.68), trabecular plate separation (r = -0 .65), total skeletal length (r = -0.71), number of nodes (r = 0.73), n umber of node-node segments (r = -0.74) and trabecular bone pattern fa ctor (r = 0.71), Also, these parameters were significantly different b etween premenopausal women (33 +/- 9 years) and postmenopausal women ( 67.3 +/- 9 years), Correlations between bone mineral density and textu re parameters were few in number and modest in strength, suggesting th at the parameters measured may reflect bone structure rather than bone mass, Conclusion: Bone texture in women undergoes changes with advanc ing age that may reflect alterations in bone microarchitecture.