The objective of a study by Peacock et al. (A-30) was to investigate whether spinal osteoarthritis is responsible for the fact that lumbar spine bone mineral density (BMD) is greater when measured in the anteroposterior plane than when measured in the lateral plane. Lateral spine radiographs were studied from women (age range 34 to 87 years) who attended a hospital outpatient department for bone density measurement and underwent lumbar spine radiography. Among the data collected were the following measurements on anteroposterior (A) and lateral (L) BMD (g/cm ):

ABMD LBMD ABMD LBMD ABMD LBMD

.879 .577 1.098 .534 1.091 .836

.824 .622 .882 .570 .746 .433

.974 .643 .816 .558 1.127 .732

.909 .664 1.017 .675 1.411 .766

.872 .559 .669 .590 .751 .397

.930 .663 .857 .666 .786 .515

.912 .710 .571 .474 1.031 .574

.758 .592 1.134 .711 .622 .506 1.072 .702 .705 .492 .848 .657

.847 .655 .775 .348 .778 .537 1.000 .518 .968 .579 .784 .419

.565 .354 .963 .665 .659 .429 1.036 .839 .933 .626 .948 .485

.811 .572 .704 .194 .634 .544

.901 .612 .624 .429 .946 .550 ABMD LBMD ABMD LBMD ABMD LBMD 1.052 .663 1.119 .707 1.107 .458 .731 .376 .686 .508 1.583 .975 .637 .488 .741 .484 1.026 .550 .951 .747 1.028 .787 .822 .610 .649 .469 .951 .710 1.166 .796 1.026 .694 .954 .548 1.022 .580 .666 .545 1.047 .706 .737 .526 Source: Dr. Cyrus Cooper. Used with permission.