A Comparative Study of Quantitative Assessment of Bone Mineral Density of Mandible

Park, Won Kyl; Kim, Jae Duk

Abstract

This study was performed to compare the bone mineral densities measured at mandibular premolar area by copper-equivalent image and hydroxyapatite phantom with those measured at radius by dual energy absorptiometry and to evaluate the clinical usefulness of Digital system with slide scanner, copper-equivalent image, and hydroxyapatite phantom. For experiment, intraoral radiograms of 15 normal subjects ranged from 20 years old to 67 old were taken with copper-step wedge at mandibular premolar area and bone mineral densities calculated by conversion equation to bone mineral density of hydroxyapatite were compared with those measured at radius distal 1/3 area by Hologic QDR-1000. Obtained results as follows: 1) The conversion equation was Y=5.97X-0.25 and its determination coefficient was 0.9967. The coefficient of variation in the measurement of copper-equivalent value ranged from 4% to 8% and showed high reproducibility. 2) The coefficient of variation in the measurement of bone mineral density by the equation ranged from 7% to 8% and showed high reproducibility. 3) The bone mineral densities ranged from 0.35 to 0.79g/cm2 at mandibular premolar area. 4) The correlation coefficient between bone mineral densities at mandibular premolar area and those at radius distal 1/3 area was 0.8965. As summary, digital image analyzing system using copper-equivalent image and hydroxyapatite phantom appeared to be clinically useful to measure the bone mineral density at dental area.