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Metabolic syndrome may protect bone health in postmenopausal women
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Metabolic syndrome may have a protective effect on bone in older postmenopausal women, according to research published in BMC Endocrine Disorders.
Higher bone mineral density was observed at the hip and spine in women with metabolic syndrome vs. those without, but the rate at which vertebral fractures occurred was similar.
“In this series of postmenopausal women over 50, metabolic syndrome was significantly and independently associated to higher BMD and lower prevalence of osteoporosis,” the researchers wrote. “However, prevalence of vertebral fracture assessment-detected asymptomatic [vertebral fractures] was identical in participants with or without metabolic syndrome.”
Abdellah El Maghraoui, MD, of the Military Hospital Mohammed V in Rabat, Morocco, and colleagues recruited 270 postmenopausal women (mean age, 61 ± 7.8 years) with no prior osteoporosis diagnosis.
The researchers used a GE Healthcare Lunar Prodigy densitometer to obtain BMD and lateral vertebral fracture assessment images. Vertebral fracture was defined based on both Genant semiquantitative approach and morphometry. Conditional regression binary analysis was used to assess osteoporosis presence as the dependent variable.
There were 62 women (23%) with metabolic syndrome, as defined by the National Cholesterol Education Program-Adult Treatment Panel III, and 82 with osteoporosis at any site (30.4%) according to WHO classification. Vertebral fractures were identified in 116 women (43%), 80 (29.6%) with grade 1 and 36 (13.3%) with grade 2 or 3.
Those with metabolic syndrome had significantly higher BMD and lower osteoporosis prevalence than those without (17.7% vs. 34.1%, P=.029); the difference in prevalence of vertebral fractures was not statistically significant (14.5 vs. 13%).
Among the group of women with osteoporosis, there were significantly fewer women with metabolic syndrome (13% vs. 27%; P=.018).
Based on conditional regression binary analysis, women with metabolic syndrome showed a 71% drop in the odds of being osteoporotic by BMD vs. women without, with adjustments for age, BMI, number of parities and years since menopause.
“Several factors may explain the controversial results, making it difficult to assess whether or not metabolic syndrome and osteoporosis are associated,” the researchers wrote.
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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