Background: A number of questionnaire-based systems and the use of portable quantitative ultrasound scanners (QUS) have been devised in an attempt to produce a cost-effective method of screening for osteoporosis.
Objective: to assess the sensitivity and specificity of different techniques and their ability to act as screening tools in relation to dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA).
Methods: 295 white postmenopausal women aged over 60 were enrolled. Each subject completed a standardized questionnaire which permits the measure of six osteoporosis indexes and had bone mineral density (BMD) measured using QUS and DXA. Sensitivity and specificity of the different techniques in relation to DXA were plotted as receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves at DXA T-score total hip ≤ -2.5 (osteoporosis).
Results: BUA sensitivity and specificity values were respectively 76.8% and 51.2% at the total hip. The optimal cut-off T-score for QUS was -2 at the total hip. The osteoporosis self-assessment tool (OST) provided consistently the highest AUC (0.80) among the clinical tools and had the best sensitivity and specificity balance (90.2%-44.5%). OST negative likelihood ratio was 0.22.
Conclusion: OST (based only on the weight and the age) performed slightly better than QUS and other risk questionnaires in predicting low BMD at the total hip