Effects of different calcium sources on iron absorption in postmenopausal women.

We measured the effect of calcium from food and supplement sources on whole-body retention of 59Fe in 19 normal postmenopausal women. Each woman received a placebo and 500 mg calcium from a mixed calcium citrate-malate salt (CCM), from orange juice plus CCM, and from milk after a test breakfast meal to which 59Fe had been added. The test meal contained 238 mg calcium. Whole-body countings of 59Fe were performed before and 30 min and 2 wk after each test meal. Retention of 59Fe was 8.3 +/- 1.1% (means +/- SEM) with placebo, 3.4 +/- 0.78% with milk, 6.0 +/- 0.97% with CCM, and 7.4 +/- 1.7% with CCM plus orange juice. When compared with placebo, milk and CCM significantly lowered iron retention (p less than 0.05) whereas CCM plus orange juice did not. The reduction with milk was greater than that with CCM (p less than 0.05) or CCM plus orange juice (p less than 0.05). The differences in the effects of these calcium sources on 59Fe retention may result from their varied contents of citric and ascorbic acids, known enhancers of iron absorption.

Correction of the effects of source, source strength, and soft-tissue thickness on spine dual-photon absorptiometry measurements.

Dual photon absorptiometry measurements of the spine are subject to drift associated with source, source strength, and truncal thickness. This study was conducted to determine the extent to which this drift in bone mineral density (BMD) measurements can be improved by analysis of scans with a new software version, 08C, and by applying external standard or phantom corrections to scans analyzed with the older version, 08B. A phantom, consisting of human lumbar vertebrae embedded in acrylic, and five clear acrylic plates to simulate a soft-tissue thickness range of 15.2-27.9 cm, was measured on a Lunar Radiation Corp DP3 scanner over the life of a 153-gadolinium (Gd) source and scans analyzed with software versions 08B and 08C. Phantom BMD was lower with 08C at both high [0.012 +/- 0.002 (SEM) g/cm2, P less than 0.001] and low (0.027 +/- 0.003 g/cm2, P less than 0.001) count rates than with 08B. Phantom BMD of scans analyzed with 08B increased with increasing source age and the source strength-related increment increased significantly as acrylic thickness increased (P = 0.014). When the same scans were analyzed with 08C, the thickness-related effect was corrected whereas a small (0.011 g/cm2/year) source-strength effect persisted. The effects of source strength and truncal thickness on BMD were also evaluated in 40 humans scanned at two detector collimations to vary count rate. With 08B, mean BMD was 1% greater when measured with 8 than with 13 mm collimation (mean difference 0.011 +/- 0.003 g/cm2, P = 0.001), whereas the version 08C, mean BMD was the same at the two collimations.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Precision of dual-photon absorptiometry.

Precision of dual-photon absorptiometry (DPA) measurements was determined in a lumbar spine phantom and in humans. Approximately half of the measurements were made before and half after a 153gadolinium source change. The phantom was measured with different amounts of acrylic, which simulates human soft tissue, in order to evaluate the influence of body thickness on bone mineral density (BMD). Results of scans analyzed with two software versions from Lunar Radiation Corp., the widely used 08B and a prototype 08C, are compared. DPA with a cold source significantly overestimated BMD in the phantom in the presence of large amounts (more than 25 cm) of soft tissue equivalent with version 08B but not with the newer version 08C. Similarly, in nine subjects, there was a significant decrease in spine BMD after a source change when scans were analyzed with version 08B (mean difference 0.026 g/cm2, P = 0.002) but not with 08C (0.01 g/cm2, P = 0.234). No systematic effect of source change on femoral BMD measurements was observed. The SD of the mean difference of two measurements of the nine subjects was 0.019 g/cm2 (1.6% of the mean value) for the spine with software version 08B and 0.024 g/cm2 (2.0%) with version 08C, 0.03 g/cm2 (3.3%) for the femur neck, 0.03 g/cm2 (4.0%) for the greater trochanter, and 0.04 g/cm2 (4.9%) for Ward's triangle region of the proximal femur. The spine phantom was scanned on two other commercial bone densitometers in order to assess inter-instrument variation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)