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Updated: Aug 14, 2026
Scanning Skeletal Remains for Bone Mineral Density in Forensic Contexts
Published on: January 29, 2018
Discordance in the decline in regional lean and bone mass with advancing age
Riki Kuwahata1, Tomoki Kuwahata, Ichiro Iwamoto
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kagoshima University Medical and Dental Hospital, Kagoshima, Japan.
Aim:
To investigate whether regional mineral-free lean mass (lean mass) and bone mineral density (BMD) decrease equally with advancing age.
Methods:
Subjects were 420 premenopausal women and 239 postmenopausal women with right-side dominance. Age, height, weight, and body mass index were recorded. Lean mass of the arms, trunk and legs were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). BMD of the same segmental regions was measured by DEXA.
Results:
Trunk and bilateral leg lean mass were inversely correlated to age (r = -0.240, P < 0.0001, -0.167, P < 0.0001, and -0.183, P < 0.0001, respectively), but arm lean mass did not decrease with aging. Regional lean mass was positively correlated to regional BMD (r = 0.284-0.449, P < 0.0001). BMD was inversely correlated to age in all segmental regions (r = -0.586 to -0.449, P < 0.0001).
Conclusions:
Decline in regional lean mass and decline in BMD with advancing age are discordant. Arm lean mass may not contribute to 'age-related decline' in arm BMD, because arm lean mass does not decrease with advancing age in the general population of women.
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