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Combining bone resorption markers and heel quantitative ultrasound to discriminate between fracture cases and
D Nanchen1, J Cornuz, C Ruffieux
1Department of Ambulatory Care and Community Medicine, University of Lausanne, 44 Rue du Bugnon, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland. david.nanchen@chuv.ch
Summary:
This nested case-control analysis of a Swiss ambulatory cohort of elderly women assessed the discriminatory power of urinary markers of bone resorption and heel quantitative ultrasound for non-vertebral fractures. The tests all discriminated between cases and controls, but combining the two strategies yielded no additional relevant information.
Introduction:
Data are limited regarding the combination of bone resorption markers and heel quantitative bone ultrasound (QUS) in the detection of women at risk for fracture.
Methods:
In a nested case-control analysis, we studied 368 women (mean age 76.2 +/- 3.2 years), 195 with low-trauma non-vertebral fractures and 173 without, matched for age, BMI, medical center, and follow-up duration, from a prospective study designed to predict fractures. Urinary total pyridinolines (PYD) and deoxypyridinolines (DPD) were measured by high performance liquid chromatography. All women underwent bone evaluations using Achilles+ and Sahara heel QUS.
Results:
Areas under the receiver operating-characteristic curve (AUC) for discriminative models of the fracture group, with 95% confidence intervals, were 0.62 (0.56-0.68) and 0.59 (0.53-0.65) for PYD and DPD, and 0.64 (0.58-0.69) and 0.65 (0.59-0.71) for Achilles+ and Sahara QUS, respectively. The combination of resorption markers and QUS added no significant discriminatory information to either measurement alone with an AUC of 0.66 (0.60-0.71) for Achilles+ with PYD and 0.68 (0.62-0.73) for Sahara with PYD.
Conclusions:
Urinary bone resorption markers and QUS are equally discriminatory between non-vertebral fracture patients and controls. However, the combination of bone resorption markers and QUS is not better than either test used alone.
