Postmenopausal women with Colles' fracture have bone mineral density values similar to those of controls when measured with calcaneus quantitative ultrasound

BACKGROUND: It is a matter of controversy whether or not Colles' fracture is an osteoporotic fracture. Indeed, the usefulness of quantitative ultrasound in distinguishing Colles' fracture from normal fractures is also unclear. METHODS: A cross-sectional case-control study was done on 469 postmenopausal Spanish women, 121 with Colles' fracture and 348 controls. Assessment of risk factors for osteoporosis and measurement of calcaneus quantitative ultrasound were carried out using a Sahara, Hologic device. RESULTS: Patients with Colles' fracture had BUA, SOS, and QUI values that were similar to those of controls, and no statistically significant differences were found. We estimated ROC curves for SOS and a score based on a linear combination of height and SOS (SH-Score). The areas under both curves were 0.56 and 0.61, respectively, which was statistically significant. To obtain 5% false-negative and 10% false-positive figures, the T-score cut-off for SOS was -2.45 and -0.045, respectively. Of these, only 9.2% were classified as high risk and 11% as low risk with 79.8% undetermined. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with Colles' fracture had BUA, SOS, and QUI values that were similar to those of controls. Nevertheless, ROC curves calculated by a combination of height and SOS showed that quantitative calcaneus ultrasound may be a useful tool for identifying postmenopausal women with Colles' fracture. These results indicate that measuring bone mineral density with ultrasound only captures limited aspects of the pathophysiology of Colles' fractures.