The Trabecular Bone Score Predicts Spine Fragility Fractures in Postmenopausal Caucasian Women Without Osteoporosis Independently of Bone Mineral Density.

Introduction: The trabecular bone score (TBS) is a gray-level textural metric that can be extracted from the two-dimensional lumbar spine dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) image. TBS is related to bone microarchitecture. Several literature data suggest that TBS predicts fracture risk as well as lumbar spine bone mineral density (LS-BMD) measurements in postmenopausal women.

Osteobiography of a 19th century elderly woman with pertrochanteric fracture and osteoporosis: a multidisciplinary approach.

In this paper the osteobiography of an elderly woman recovered from a cemetery tomb where she was buried in 1850, affected by hip fracture and osteoporosis, is described. The overall anthropological characteristics of the individual have been investigated. Macroscopic, radiographic, tomographic, microscopic, and chemical and structural examinations have been performed to give a detailed account of the condition of the skeleton.

Early corticosteroid treatment in 4 Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients: 14-year follow-up.

Introduction: Corticosteroid treatment is the standard of care in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), but the optimal age to initiate treatment and dosage pattern remain a matter of discussion.

Methods: We performed a long-term study of alternate-day corticosteroids in five 2- to 4-year-old DMD patients. The primary outcome measure was prolongation of the ability to walk.

Cyclosporine A in Ullrich congenital muscular dystrophy: long-term results.

Six individuals with Ullrich congenital muscular dystrophy (UCMD) and mutations in the genes-encoding collagen VI, aging 5-9, received 3-5 mg/kg of cyclosporine A (CsA) daily for 1 to 3.2 years. The primary outcome measure was the muscle strength evaluated with a myometer and expressed as megalimbs.

Osteosynthetic improvement of osteoporotic bone: prevention surgery.

A prior osteoporotic femoral neck fracture (FNF) doubles the risk of a second, contralateral hip fracture. Pharmacological prevention of osteoporotic fractures is cost-effective but medication compliance and persistence rates are suboptimal.The aim of our study was to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a device developed for the surgical prevention of an additional contralateral FNF in elderly osteoporotic patients.

Effects of pulsed electromagnetic stimulation on patients undergoing hip revision prostheses: a randomized prospective double-blind study.

In this prospective, randomized, double-blind study, the effect of Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields (PEMFs) was investigated in 30 subjects undergoing hip revision using the Wagner SL stem. The subjects were treated for 6 h/day up to 90 days after revision. Study end points were assessed clinically by the functional scale of Merle D'Aubigné and instrumentally by Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) at the Gruen zones.

Relationship of body mass index with main limb fragility fractures in postmenopausal women.

Body mass index (BMI) has been found to be related to the risk of osteoporotic hip fractures in women, regardless of bone mineral density (BMD). The same relationship is under debate for other limb fragility fractures. Very few studies have investigated the comparison of fracture risk among BMI categories, classified according to the WHO criteria, despite the potential usefulness of such information for clinical purposes.

Relationship of a lifelong physical workload with physical function and low back pain in retired women.

Background And Aims: The effect of heavy work-related physical loads (WRPL) on low back pain (LBP) and impaired physical function has been studied extensively in active workers but not in pensioners.

Methods: We compared LBP and physical function in post-menopausal pensioners, divided according to their life-long WRPL into 114 heavy physical workers (HPW), and 391 light physical workers (LPW). LBP and physical function (domains of mobility, home routines) were scored by a questionnaire.

Relationship between body composition and bone mineral density in women with and without osteoporosis: relative contribution of lean and fat mass.

To assess the relationship of total fat mass (TFM) and total lean mass (TLM) with bone mineral density (BMD) and bone mineral content (BMC), we studied 770 postmenopausal white women after total body measurements by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Height-independent bone mineral density (HIBMD) was also tested. The effects of TFM and TLM on the dependent variables HIBMD, BMD, and BMC were assessed by the univariate general linear model (UGLM).

The relationship of vitamin D status to bone mineral density in an Italian population of postmenopausal women.

Several authors have found a relationship between vitamin D status and bone mineral density (BMD). To our knowledge, no previous studies on this topic have been carried out on the Italian postmenopausal population. We studied this relationship retrospectively in 156 Italian postmenopausal women.

Clinical risk factor evaluation to defer postmenopausal women from bone mineral density measurement: an Italian study.

To identify clinical risk factors (CRFs) best related to low bone mineral density (BMD) and to assess their abilityin deferring women from dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), 1187 Italian postmenopausal women, dividedinto development (709) and validation (478) groups, were studied. CRFs were investigated by questionnaire. DXAwas performed at the spine and femoral neck.

Quantitative ultrasound at the phalanxes discriminates osteoporotic women with vertebral but not with hip fracture.

Caucasian postmenopausal women with vertebral fracture (38), hip fracture (38) and without fracture (124) were measured by spine and femoral neck bone mineral density (BMD) (Norland XR 36), and two quantitative ultrasound (US) or QUS parameters (Igea DBM sonic 1200): the amplitude-dependent speed of sound (Ad-Sos) and the US bone profile score (UBPS), at the proximal hand phalanxes to investigate the ability of QUS to detect previous fracture. Age, height and weight were not different among groups, but menopausal age was lower with vertebral fracture (p < 0.005).

Comparison between T-score-based diagnosis of osteoporosis and specific skeletal site measurements: prognostic value for predicting fracture risk.

T-score-based diagnosis of osteoporosis might lead to diagnostic misclassification when using multiple-site bone mineral density (BMD) measurements. To compare the diagnostic concordance of T-score-based diagnosis of osteoporosis among different skeletal sites and its correlation to osteoporotic fracture, we studied 1200 postmenopausal women with (441) and without (759) fragility fracture after measuring BMD at the femoral neck, Ward's triangle, trochanter, and spine. Agreement rates of T-score-based diagnosis of osteoporosis were statistically different between pairs of measurements taken at different skeletal sites (McNemar test, p < 0.

Early prednisone treatment in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

The purpose of this long-term, open parallel-group, double-consent study of alternate-day, low-dose prednisone in 2-4-year-old patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) was to determine whether prednisone produces a beneficial effect when given earlier than usual. Muscle function was evaluated by timed tests, and muscle strength with a hand-held myometer. After 55 months of treatment, the five patients (mean age 8.

Prediction of hip fracture can be significantly improved by a single biomedical indicator.

Femoral neck fractures are a relevant clinical and social problem. The aim of this study was to improve the prediction of patients at-risk of femoral neck fracture with respect to the current densitometric-based methods. In particular, finite element models were used to assess the prediction accuracy obtained by combining together data from the bone density distribution, the proximal femur anatomy, and the fall-related loading conditions.