A prospective study of quantitative ultrasound in children and adolescents

The accrual of optimal bone mass during childhood and adolescence is essent ial for the formation of a skeleton that will meet structural needs through out life. Assessing bone health of children is becoming increasingly import ant in order to identify those who require interventions, and quantitative ultrasound (QUS) has appeal for these assessments. The purpose of this pros pective study was to characterize changes in QUS values in 328 healthy chil dren and adolescents over a 3-yr period. Measurements of QUS, height, weigh t, nutrient intake, fracture history, and Tanner stage were made at baselin e and 3 yr later. Both females and males experienced significant increases in QUS values during the study. The rate of change of QUS peaked at an earl ier age in females than in males, and maximum accumulation rates in both ge nders occurred at ages at which highest accumulation rates are seen with de nsitometry. Females exhibited higher QUS values than males during puberty, also similar to results for dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). This is the fi rst report of prospective data of QUS in children and adolescents. Our find ings that QUS values change during childhood and adolescence in a manner si milar to DXA values, the "gold standard," provide support for the validity of using QUS to assess bone health in children and adolescents.