Age-related changes in bone mineral density of male skeletal bones

Abstract

The results of studying the age-related changes in skeletal bone mineral density (BMD) in normal males at the age from 3 to 85 years determined with computed tomography and X-ray double-energy bone densitometry were analyzed. In immature children, BMD values in the spine were identical. Unlike adult subjects, they had the direct dependence between bone mass and body length, which disappeared as soon as puberty started. Then BMD increased to a greater extent in girls than in boys, as a result of girls’ earlier pubescence. After pubescence, the density of cortical bone significantly correlated with the anthropometric indices of the body length, mass and the volume of muscles and connective tissue. Trabecular bone density of vertebrae increased only at the later stages of pubescence.