Relationship between Bone Mineral Densities of Cervical and Lumbar Vertebrae in Postmenopausal Women

抄録

For dental implant treatment, it is important to assess the general bone condition. Using multi-slice CT scans, we assessed the relationships between the bone mineral densities (BMDs) of the cervical and lumbar vertebrae in postmenopausal women to see if such data might be useful for imaging-based diagnosis prior to dental implant treatment. Thirty postmenopausal women were enrolled in this investigation, and their third cervical vertebrae were scanned for BMD using multi-slice computed tomography (CT) while the lumbar vertebrae were measured using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, after which the percentage of the young adult mean (YAM) was calculated. The correlations between the BMD of the cervical vertebra and percentage of YAM were analyzed. The mean BMD of the cervical vertebra was 255 mg/cm³ HA (s.d.: 28.8) in the normal group, 233 mg/cm³ HA (s.d.: 44.3) in the osteopenic group, and 178 mg/cm³ HA (s.d.: 35.9) in the osteoporosis group. A significant difference was observed between the normal and osteoporosis groups, and between the osteopenic and osteoporosis groups. A correlation (r = 0.705) was observed between the BMD of the cervical vertebrae and percentage of YAM of the lumbar vertebrae. The BMD of the third cervical vertebrae obtained from multi-slice CT images might be applicable in dental implant treatment to evaluate the influence of the general bone condition.