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Asthma related to BMD reductions

Airway hyperresponsiveness and asthma may be related to significant reductions in bone mineral density, according to recently published data.

“Several studies have reported a dose-related association between use of an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) and decline in BMD,” Jae-Woo Jung, MD, PhD, of the Institute of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the Seoul National University Medical Research Center in South Korea, and colleagues wrote. “The serum vitamin D levels of patients with asthma or airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) are relatively lower compared with those of healthy controls, and lower levels of vitamin D were found to be related to increased asthma severity and more frequent exacerbations.”

The researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of 7,034 patients who had undergone health check-ups from November 2004 to April 2011. Of those, 216 (3.1%) demonstrated a positive AHR test result, and 217 (3.1%) exhibited a history of asthma. Patients with AHR also displayed significantly lower lumbar spine (−0.53 vs. −0.03) and femur (−0.47 vs. −0.22) BMD compared with those without AHR (P<.001 for both).

The proportion of patients with osteopenia (44.6% vs. 29.5%) or osteoporosis (6.1% vs. 4.1%) were greater among those in the AHR-positive group compared with those in the AHR-negative group after adjustments for age, sex, BMI, smoking status, postmenopausal state, and history of hormone replacement therapy (OR=1.715; 95% CI, 1.252-2.349).

The data were similar in patients who had been diagnosed with asthma compared with those who had never been diagnosed (OR=1.526; 95% CI, 1.12-2.079).

“Our study demonstrated a significant reduction of BMD in patients who had positive AHR test results but never had a history of systemic corticosteroid,” they wrote.

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.