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Relationship of mandibular and cervical vertebral bone density using computed tomography

¹ Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ondokuzmayis University, Samsun, Turkey; ² Department of Oral Diagnosis and Radiology, Faculty of Dentistry, Ondokuzmayis University, Samsun, Turkey

MD, Ondokuz Mayis Universitesi, Tip Fakültesi, Radyoloji, 55139, Samsun, Turkey; E-mail: ccelenk{at}omu.edu.tr; ccelenk{at}hotmail.com

Received 17 August 2006; revised 22 January 2007; accepted 18 February 2007

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to compare mandibular and cervical vertebral bone density (BD) using CT.

Methods: Cervical CT images from 114 patients (46 women, 68 men; mean age 49 years) with various clinical symptoms (e.g. headache, vertigo and imbalance) were included in this study. The mandibular and cervical vertebral BD measurements, expressed in Hounsfield units, were performed by the same investigator on these sections.

Results: The relationship between cervical vertebral and mandibular BD was revealed by regression and with correlation analysis. The correlation coefficient was r = 0.269, r² = 0.07, P = 0.004, which is statistically significant because of the high number of patients. However, the r² was very small, indicating that the power of the relationship is low. The distribution diagrams of the cervical vertebrae and mandible BD between female and male patients were similar. The relationship between age and mandibular BD was very weak (r = 0.033, r² = 0.009, P = 0.726); the relationship between age and cervical vertebrae BD was also negatively correlated (r = –0.354, r² = 0.13, P = 0.0001). This finding indicates that there is a statistical significance, but that the strength of the relationship is weak (r² = 0.13).

Conclusions: There was a correlation between skeletal and mandibular BD, but the strength of the relationship is low. Mandibular BD for both men and women did not correlate with age; cervical vertebral BD did correlate with age.

Keywords: mandible; cervical vertebrae; bone density; computed tomography