Identification of fast bone losers using high precision pQCT in pre- and post-menopausal Chinese women in Hong Kong

Osteoporosis is a silent disease. However, osteoporotic patients are mostly seeking for treatment until they have recognizable symptoms, such as pain or even fracture. By that time there can have been excessive bone loss. The annual rate of bone loss is generally around 1-2%, but can be as high as 3-5% in the pre- and post-menopausal period. The present study was designed to identify pre- and post-menopausal women who might be at high risk of osteoporosis defined as an annual trabecular bone loss over 3% in the non-dominate distal radius. One hundred and fifty-four randomly selected Hong Kong Chinese women aged 40 to 58 was recruited into the study. Bone mineral density (BMD) measurement on the distal radius of the non-dominant site was conducted using a highly accurate pQCT (Densiscan 2000). Two measurements were performed for each subject in a time interval of 6 months. Cortical and trabecular volumetric BMD (mg/cm/sup 3/) was calculated separately. Baseline measurements between pre- and post-menopausal women showed that the annul bone loss rate of trabecular bone (2.14%) was almost 2.5 fold faster than the cortical bone (0.86%) compared. The follow-up data from 53 subjects showed that one-third of the post-menopausal women belonged to fast bone losers. Fast bone losers were found more in low bone mass group, however without static significance. Measurements from more subjects were needed for follow-up before drawing a more reliable conclusion.