Absorptiometric assessment of muscle-bone relationships in humans. Reference, validation, and application studies

GUSTAVO ROBERTO COINTRY; RICARDO FRANCISCO CAPOZZA; SEBASTIAN EDUARDO FERRETTI; SARA FELDMAN; PAOLA REINA; NÉSTOR MATÍAS FRACALOSSI; MARÍA ROSA ULLA; CARLOS CURE CURE; JOSÉ LUIS FERRETTI

JOURNAL OF BONE AND MINERAL METABOLISM.

Springer Verlag

Lugar: Tokio; Año: 2005 vol. 23 p. 109 - 114

0914-8779

This report summarizes some preliminary absorptiometric (DXA, QCT/pQCT) studies from our laboratory, supporting the following assumptions: 1. In Homo sapiens at all ages, natural proportionality between DXA-assessed bone mineral mass (BMC) and muscle mass (lean mass, LM) of the whole body or limbs is specific for ethnicity, gender, and reproductive status, but not for body weight, height or body-mass index .  2. This proportionality is sensitive to many kinds of endocrine-metabolic perturbations.  3. Percentilized or Z-scored charts of the BMC vs. LM correlations, as determined in large samples of healthy patients, could provide a diagnostic reference for evaluating proportionality in different conditions.  4. Employing exclusively DXA, this methodology can be applied to discriminate between "disuse-related" and "metabolic" osteopenias based on the finding of normal or low BMC-LM percentiles or Z-score, respectively, with important therapeutic and monitoring implications