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Diagnostic efficacy of alveolar bone loss of the mandible for identifying postmenopausal women with femoral osteoporosis

¹ Division of Medical Intelligence and Informatics, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan; ² Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Hiroshima University Hospital, Hiroshima, Japan; ³ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Clinical Medical Science, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan

*Correspondence to: Akira Taguchi, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Hiroshima University Hospital, 1-2-3 Kasumi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 734-8553, Japan; Email: akiro{at}hiroshima-u.ac.jp

Received 26 October 2005; revised 14 February 2006; accepted 2 March 2006

Objectives: Mandibular cortical width (MCW) detected on panoramic radiographs may be useful for identifying postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. There is little known regarding whether alveolar bone loss (ABL) of the mandible detected on panoramic radiographs is a potentially accurate screening tool for osteoporosis in comparison with MCW. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether ABL of the mandible on panoramic radiographs is useful for identifying femoral osteoporosis in postmenopausal women in comparison with MCW.

Methods: Three hundred and fifty-four Japanese postmenopausal women (mean age±SD, 56.8±7.7 years) were recruited for this study. Femoral BMD was measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Panoramic radiographs were obtained to estimate ABL of the mandible and MCW.

Results: A multiple regression analysis revealed that femoral BMD was significantly associated with MCW (P<0.001), weight (P<0.001), age (P<0.001) and ABL of the mandible (P=0.029; adjusted r²=0.380). The area under the ROC curve (AUC) for identifying femoral osteoporosis was 0.609 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.523–0.696] for ABL of the mandible and 0.779 (95% CI, 0.713–0.844) for MCW, respectively. AUC for ABL of the mandible indicated less accuracy.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that ABL of the mandible on panoramic radiographs may not be useful for identifying postmenopausal women with femoral osteoporosis in comparison with MCW.

Keywords: osteoporosis; alveolar bone; mandible; menopause