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Published on: January 31, 2025
Quantitative ultrasound in the assessment of bone status of patients suffering from rheumatic diseases
I Lernbass1, A Wutzl, J Grisar
1Department of Pathophysiology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. arno.wutzl@chello.at
Objective:
To explore the effects of rheumatic diseases and glucocorticoids on bone mass a group of patients suffering from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, n=18) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA, n=22) were examined.
Design:
We examined 40 patients and 48 controls with quantitative ultrasound (QUS) and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA).
Results:
QUS (broadband ultrasound attenuation, BUA; speed of sound, SOS) values were found to be significantly lower in patients than in controls ( P<0.001). QUS measurements were moderately correlated with DXA measurements (kappa score ( kappa) 0.28 at the lumbar spine, and 0.46 at the femoral neck). There were no significant relations between the dosage of glucocorticoids and QUS parameters.
Conclusion:
In patients suffering from inflammatory rheumatic diseases QUS values were significantly decreased. SOS but not BUA and DXA measurements reflected disease activity assessed by erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP). QUS reflects different aspects of bone status compared with DXA.
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