Severe compression deformities rare in osteopenia patients.(Clinical Rounds)

SAN DIEGO -- Moderate to severe vertebral compression deformities are uncommon among postmenopausal women with osteopenia who lack a clinical history of fragility fracture, Dr. Angela M. Cheung reported during a poster session at the annual meeting of the International Society for Clinical Densitometry.

In what she described as the first study to describe the prevalence of vertebral deformities in healthy postmenopausal women with osteopenia, Dr. Cheung and her associates conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 439 women participating in the ongoing 2-year Evaluation of the Clinical Use of Vitamin K Supplementation in Postmenopausal Women with Osteopenia trial (ECKO). Of the 48 deformities detected in the study, 45 (94%) were grade 1.

"The unknown is, how does that mild, grade 1 vertebral compression deformity translate to future fracture risk?" Dr. Cheung, director of the osteoporosis program for the University Health Network, Toronto, said in an interview. "We'll take a look at that. It's an ongoing study."

Exclusion criteria included being on an osteoporosis medication, having a clinical fragility fracture, or having a T score of less than -2.0 at the lumbar spine, total hip, or femoral neck.

Researchers used densitometry to measure bone mineral density and to perform a vertebral fracture assessment.

The mean ...