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Document Type

Article

Abstract

The rate and degree of cortical bone loss was examined at five sites along the femoral diaphysis in males and females aged 20 through 55+ from an archeologically excavated Amerindian population. Age-related remodeling within the diaphysis was evaluated using measures of cortical thickness, cross-sectional area, and diaphyseal diameter. The results tend to confirm previous studies indicating: 1. a high degree of association between endosteal bone loss and the aging process after the third decade of life; 2. that osteoporotic hone loss is both relatively and absolutely greater among females than among males, and; 3. that bone growth at the sub-periosteal surface continues through the decades studied in both sexes. This study found further that: 1. differential rates of cortical bone loss and associated remodeling are found within the femoral diaphysis, and; 2. these remodeling differences appear to be sex-specific. The reduction in cortical thickness and cross-sectional area was most apparent in the proximal one-third of the femoral diaphysis among the females, and in the distal one-third of the femoral diaphysis among the males. Cortical bone loss tended to be offset to varying degrees in both sexes by apposition at the sub-periosteal surface, which appeared to act as a compensatory factor bringing about an increase in diameter in those areas of the diaphysis where the greatest amount of endosteal resorption occurred.

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