Study by a team, at Worcester Polytechnic Institute shows standard bone density scans may underestimate the fracture risk for spinal cord injury patients and, by extension, those with osteoporosis.
The results suggest that physicians need to begin therapies for spinal cord injury patients sooner to maintain bone mass and strength. The data also serve as a warning to physicians treating patients with osteoporosis to think beyond the standard bone density test when assessing risks of hip and other fractures. Details of the study are reported in the paper “Reduction in Proximal Femoral Strength in Patients With Acute Spinal Cord Injury” published by the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.
“It’s not just a question of how much bone mass is lost, but where that loss is occurring,” said Karen Troy, PhD, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at WPI and senior author of the paper. “We found that bone loss occurred sooner in mechanically important areas and significantly increased the risk of fracture.”
Study image is featured on the cover of the Journal of Bone Mineral Research. Red areas of the bone are stiffer and blue areas are less stiff.
