ABSTRACT
We determined the bone mineral density (BMD) of normal Ukrainian female subjects and compared results with USA-European reference data. The research was conducted at the Ukrainian Scientific-Medical Centre for the Problems of Osteoporosis and included 353 women aged 20-79 years. Conventional BMD measurements of the spine (L1-L4 in the anterior-posterior position), proximal femur (neck, Ward's triangle, and trochanter regions), and radial shaft (33% site) were determined by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry using a densitometer Prodigy. Age-related changes in BMD were similar in form to those of USA-European reference data. We found that the BMD values of spine for Ukrainian women of 50-59 years were lower than published values. Regression analyses showed that weight was a significant predictor of female spine and femur BMD for both the premenopausal and the postmenopausal decades. Age was a significant predictor of female spine BMD in the 50- to 79-year age group. The prevalence of osteoporosis and osteopenia for Ukrainian women was 11% at the femoral neck and 20% and 24% at the spine and radial shaft, respectively.