Journal of bone and mineral research : the official journal of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research
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J. Bone Miner. Res. · Aug 2001
Influence of the upper femur and pelvic geometry on the risk and type of hip fractures.
The geometry of the upper femur has been reported to associate with the hip fracture risk in postmenopausal women. However, these associations seem to be partly conflicting, probably because of differences in measurement setup. Here, we compared the upper femur and pelvic geometries of 70 hip fracture patients (46 cervical and 24 trochanteric fractures) and 40 age-adjusted controls based on plain anteroposterior radiographs, eliminating the possible sources of inaccuracy as far as possible by using a standardized patient position and calibrated dimension measurements by digital image analysis. ⋯ The femoral neck/shaft cortex ratio was lower and the FSD was smaller in the cervical hip fracture group (p < 0.05). Acetabular width (AW) was greater and the SOPD was wider in the cervical fracture patients (p < 0.01). We concluded that the upper femur and pelvic dimensions as defined from calibrated and position-standardized plain radiographs are useful in the evaluation of hip fracture risk and fracture type.