Association between bone mineral density and metabolic syndrome in postmenopausal Korean women.

Background/aims: We investigated the relationship between bone mineral density (BMD) of the femur neck or lumbar spine and metabolic syndrome or its parameters in postmenopausal Korean women.

Methods: This study included 399 postmenopausal women, for whom the BMD of their L2s-L4s and femur necks were examined in association with metabolic syndrome.

Results: Subjects with metabolic syndrome had a higher BMD of the femur neck than those without metabolic syndrome when adjusted for age (0.85 +/- 0.09 vs. 0.82 +/- 0.12 g/cm(2), p = 0.011), while there was no statistical difference at lumbar spine. When adjusted for age and BMI, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) was weakly and negatively correlated with BMD of the lumbar and femur neck (r = -0.107, p = 0.033; r = -0.111, p = 0.028 respectively).

Conclusion: Metabolic syndrome was partly associated with higher BMD in our postmenopausal Korean women. Our study also showed that HDL-C levels were negatively associated with BMD of the lumbar spine and femur neck which means that subjects with lower HDL-C levels could have higher BMD. The results of our retrospective study revealed that metabolic syndrome could be associated with higher BMD in our postmenopausal Korean women.