Correlations Between Bone Turnover Marker Concentrations and Maxillary and Mandibular Cancellous Hounsfield Units: A Cross-Sectional Study.

This study investigates the correlations between bone turnover marker (BTM) concentrations and maxillary and mandibular cancellous bone density, measured in Hounsfield units (HUs), to assess the utility of BTMs in preoperative implant treatment examinations. In a cross-sectional analysis of 94 patients without uncontrolled systemic diseases, several bone formation markers (bone-specific alkaline phosphatase [BAP] and procollagen type 1 N-terminal propeptide [P1NP]) and bone resorption markers (deoxypyridinoline [DPD] and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase 5b [TRACP-5b]) showed significant negative correlations with maxillary and mandibular HUs, indicating that higher bone turnover is associated with lower bone mineral density (BMD). The study suggests that BTM measurements can effectively complement imaging assessments, especially when computed tomography (CT)-derived HUs are unavailable or limited, such as with cone beam CT (CBCT). These findings support the potential role of BTMs as noninvasive biomarkers to inform implant planning by estimating bone quality in the maxillofacial region.