Forearm mineral content in normal men: relationship to weight, height and plasma testosterone concentrations

We measured forearm bone mineral content by single photon absorptiometry together with height, weight and the plasma concentrations of testosterone, free testosterone and sex steroid binding globulin in 66 normal Caucasian males aged 29-46 years. Multiple regression analysis suggests that bone mineral content in either the dominant or the nondominant arm is correlated with weight and sex steroid binding globulin (p less than 0.05 for both parameters). The partial negative correlation of bone mineral content (corrected for weight and sex steroid binding globulin) with plasma testosterone failed to reach statistical significance (p = 0.07). The parsimonious regression equation which best explained the bone mineral content measurements in the nondominant forearm in these men was bone mineral content = 29.1-0.374 (plasma testosterone) + 0.383 (weight) + 0.220 (sex steroid binding globulin) with an R2 value of 29.7%. A similar equation was generated for the dominant arm.