Osteoporosis News

Investigators in Japan may have identified at least part of the age-related switch in cell type generation that leads to osteoporosis in an aging population.

A new nano-CT imaging technique expected to facilitate advances in life sciences and material sciences may help clinicians, radiologists and researchers see the structure of osteoporotic bone more clearly via high-resolution, 3D images, according to a press release from Technische Universitaet Muenchen, in Garching, Germany.

The genetic variant 677C>T — a single nucleotide polymorphism that is related to Alzheimer’s disease and cardiovascular disease — has been linked to osteoporotic vertebral fractures, according to scientists from the University of Barcelona.

VIENNA — A vertebral fracture that substantially reduces vertebral body height should alert orthopaedic surgeons to a patient at risk for a subsequent hip fracture, according to results of a Finnish population-based study.

A new, recently published model to measure osteoporosis disease burden, which is easily adaptable for use in countries where data are lacking, provides a potentially powerful tool to inform health policy decision making, according to an International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) press release.

A 2007 study claimed that an estimated 1.7 million vertebral compression fractures occur every year in Europe and the United States. These fractures occur in a range of people — from young trauma patients with healthy bones to older patients with osteoporosis suffering cumulative events. While each patient’s situation is different, the two most frequently debated interventions are vertebroplasty and the relatively new kyphoplasty.

MADRID — The use of adjuvant anabolic therapy — in the form of teriparatide — in osteoporotic femoral neck fractures displays enhanced repair, stability of osteosynthesis, pain relief and the recovery of autonomy in walking, according to an orthopaedic investigator.

A newly discovered protein has been shown to regulate body fat and bone mass, according to a Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) press release.

The use of oral bisphosphonates did not significantly increase the risk for esophageal or gastric cancers when compared with no bisphosphonate use, according to results of a U.K. study.

Researchers at the University California-Davis, Iowa State University and centers, who conducted the longest study of its kind into the role that soy isoflavones play in the health of postmenopausal women, found only a slight benefit when the target population used this natural compound, according to a United Stated Department of Agriculture-Research, Education, and Economics press release.