[Evaluation of the relationship between skeletal status and radiomorphometric indices of the mandible observed in panoramic radiography in women]

ABSTRACT

Since the age-related skeletal osteopenia has attracted much attention in recent studies and also because osteoporosis is the most common metabolic bone disease and the panoramic radiography is widely used for routine examinations, the relationship between radiomorphometric indices of mandibular bone [Panoramic Mandibular Index, PMI; the height of mandibular Inferior Cortex, IC [mm] and Mandibular Cortical Index, MCI] in panoramic radiography and skeletal status in femoral neck and lumbar spine [L[2]-L[4]] was evaluated in women referring to radiology department of Mashhad dental school. In this cross sectional analytical study, radiomorphometric indices of mandibular bone of 67 women over 35 years old referring to radiology department of Mashhad dental school were recorded. Women with a history of bone metabolism affecting diseases or drugs were excluded from our study. All the cases had a panoramic radiography in their orders. All of the patients were then referred to Toos Bone Densitometry Center for bone densitometry in left femoral neck and lumbar spine [L[2]-L[4]], using DEXA[1] technique with Osteocore apparatus. The patients were divided into three categories of normal, osteopenic and osteoporotic in each skeletal region according to their T-score. The data were analyzed by ANOVA and Pearson's correlation coefficient. Comparing average of bone mineral density between C[1] and C[3] subgroups of MCI, in postmenopausal females in femoral neck, a significant difference was detected [P-Value=0.04]. The average of PMI in the three different skeletal categories, was not different according to skeletal region and menstruation status [P-Value>0.05]. The results of this study showed that the use of radiomorphometric indices of mandible [especially MCI] can help to determine skeletal status of patients but is not enough for precise evaluation of patients' skeletal status