Reference microarchitectural values measured by HR-pQCT in a Franco-Swiss cohort of young adult women

Summary Bone microarchitecture assessed by high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography varies across populations of different origin. The study presents a reference dataset of microarchitectural parameters in a homogeneous group of participants aged within 22–27 range determined by a discriminant analysis of a larger cross-sectional cohort of 339 women. Introduction High-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) non-invasively measures three-dimensional bone microarchitectural parameters and volumetric bone mineral density. Previous studies established normative reference HR-pQCT datasets for several populations, but there were few data assessed in a reference group of young women with Caucasian ethnicity living in Western Europe. It is important to obtain different specific reference dataset for a valid interpretation of cortical and trabecular microarchitecture data. The aim of our study was to find the population with the most optimal bone status in order to establish a descriptive reference HR-pQCT dataset in a young and healthy normal-weight female cohort living in a European area including Geneva, Switzerland, Lyon and Saint-Etienne, France. Methods We constituted a cross-sectional cohort of 339 women aged 19–41 years with a BMI > 18 and