BoneKEy-Osteovision | News
Steroids and bone loss
DOI:10.1138/2001038
In the September 27, 2001 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, two studies linked the effect of steroids to bone loss. The articles were accompanied by an editorial by Bess Dawson-Hughes on bone loss associated with other therapies.
In the first study, researchers at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital found in a three-year prospective study of a group of 109 premenopausal women that inhaled glucocorticoids, used in the treatment of asthma, were associated with a dose-related decline in bone density in the hip. No dose-related bone loss was found at the femoral neck or lumbar spine in these women. This study provided evidence that inhaled steroids accelerate bone loss, as do oral steroids.
In another study, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital examined the effect of pamidronate in 47 men treated for prostate cancer with a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist, leuprolide. In a 48-week study, the researchers found that men treated with leuprolide alone had a bone density decrease of 3% in the spine and 2% in the hip, while there was no significant change of the mean bone mineral density in men treated with leuprolide and pamidronate.
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