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Published on: January 29, 2018
Radial quantitative ultrasound and dual energy x-ray absorptiometry: intermethod agreement for bone status assessment
Kar Hau Chong1, Bee Koon Poh1, Nor Aini Jamil1
1Physical Activity and Energy Metabolism Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Abstract:
Aim. To validate a radial quantitative ultrasound (QUS) system with dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), a criterion technique in bone status assessment among children. Methods. Bone health was evaluated using a radial QUS system (Sunlight Omnisense 8000P) to measure the speed of sound (SOS) at one-third distal radius of the nondominant hand and DXA (Hologic QDR) was used to assess whole body bone mineral density (BMD). Results. Some 29.9% of the children were grossly misclassified according to quartiles of BMD and radial SOS. Poor agreement was observed between Z-scores of radial SOS and whole-body BMD (mean difference = 0.6 ± 0.9; 95% limits of agreement = -1.4 to 2.6). With a cut-off value of -1.0, radial SOS yielded satisfactory sensitivity (80%) and specificity (93%) for the detection of children with low BMD. Conclusion. The observed poor agreement in the present study suggests that radial QUS and DXA are not comparable and hence are not interchangeable in evaluating bone status of the children.
