Abstract :
Background: Osteoporosis, is a silent progressive disease associated with low bone density and resultant deterioration of bone micro architecture and fragility fractures.
Unfortunately, the Dexa-Scan is not widely available, it is expensive and involves exposure to some amount of radiation.
India is a developing country with limited health resources and economic restrictions. Evolving cost- effective methods to detect osteoporosis with possibilities of widespread usage are desirable.
Material & Methods: Detailed clinical data, height, weight and T- score measurements from QUS heel studies of 1843 patients (including 1225 females & 518 male) were obtained from the USOFRA (Uma Sanjeevani Osteoporosis screening and Fracture Risk Assessment) study from 2008 till date.
Observations: The study demonstrates an increasing incidence of severe height loss with advancing age & correspondingly higher incidence of fragility fractures.
403 Women with Mild Height Loss (1”) with Fragility fractures had the low T-scores especially in the younger women aged 40 – 60.
The heavier women aged 40 – 60 years, who suffered mild height loss, had much stronger bones evident by their highest T-scores, than the women who were light and had severe height loss, who had the lowest T-scores.
Discussion: It was found that additional clinical risk factor ‘Severe Height Loss (>1), which when coupled with low body weight 1”) obtained by deducting present height measurement from self-reported height known from youth (age 20-25), is a valuable clinical risk factor for osteoporosis. It can be used in women aged 40 years and above as a screening tool for early detection of osteoporosis.
Keyword :
Post-menopausal Osteoporosis; Osteopenia; QUS Heel; T-score; BMD; Height Loss; Clinical Risk Factors; Fragility Fracture