Relationship between two panoramic radiography indices and bone mineral density of postmenopausal women with osteopenia and osteoporosis

Statement of the Problem: Reduced bone mineral density [BMD] generally affects postmenopausal women and it is classified into moderate [osteopenia] and signifi-cant osteoporosis. Based on digital panoramic radiographs [DPRs], several quantita-tive and qualitative assessment methods have been proposed for the diagnosis and evaluation of bone changes and as a predictor of BMD

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Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare mandibular cortical width [MCW] and mandibular cortical index [MCI] derived from DPRs in evaluating the BMD in osteopenic and osteoporotic post-menopausal women

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Materials and Method: In this cross-sectional study, the BMD assessment was performed using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry [DEXA]. Then, patients were divided into two groups: osteopenia and osteoporosis based on WHO criteria. Two types of T-scores including TT [trabecular] for lumbar spine, TC [cortical] for femo-ral neck and finally, MCW and MCI were measured based on DPRs

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Results: Fifty females with the average age of 57.64 +/- 6.03 years were entered into the study. MCW significantly correlated with BMD [p< 0.05]. Pearson correlation coefficient test revealed that there was almost significant relationship between MCI and BMD [p= 0.079]. The area under the curve [AUC] in ROC suggested that there was a close overlap between MCW [0.773] and TC [0.783], but TT had the greatest AUC [0.996]

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Conclusion: The results showed that MCW is an appropriate index of osteoporosis in post-menopausal women. Although the prediction of osteoporosis is poorer at the femoral neck than lumbar spine, MCW can serve as a screening tool for osteoporosis in this area