Correlation between tibial measurements using peripheral quantitative computed tomography and hip areal bone density measurements in ambulatory chronic stroke patients.

Objective: Peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) has been increasingly used in stroke research. The correlations between tibial bone measurements by pQCT and hip areal bone mineral density (aBMD) measurements by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) (gold standard for diagnosing osteoporosis) in chronic stroke patients were examined in this study. If the correlations were strong, there may be potential for further pursuit of clinical use of pQCT.

Methods: Seventy-four chronic stroke patients who are household ambulators (22 women, 52 men; ≥ 6 months after onset) underwent pQCT scanning of the tibial distal epiphysis (4% site) and diaphysis (66% site) and DXA hip scans on both sides. Pearson's correlation coefficients were used to investigate the correlations between the pQCT-derived variables and the DXA-derived total hip and femoral neck aBMD.

Results: All pQCT tibial variables, except the total area, were significantly associated with total hip and femoral neck aBMD. Cortical bone mineral content (66% site) was the only variable that yielded good-to-excellent correlations with total hip and femoral neck aBMD on both sides (r = 0.750-0.833).

Conclusions: Based on the good correlations between tibial pQCT variables and hip aBMD, the clinical use of pQCT in assessing bone health in this population should be further pursued.