Bone Abstracts

Background: Denosumab is licensed for the treatment of osteoporosis in the UK. Guidance issued by NICE and SMC in indicated that Denosumab may be used in the treatment of patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis who are unsuitable for other treatments. Here we have reviewed the clinical characteristics of patients treated within a secondary care referral centre adverse events encountered during treatment.Methods: We reviewed data from 75 consecutive pat...

Acute phase reaction (APR) is the most frequent side effect following i.v. nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates (N-BPs) infusion. A recent observation in osteoporotic women treated with N-BPs evidenced a negative association between 25(OH)D levels and APR, likely due to the immuno-modulatory effects of vitamin D on γδTcells. However, this association remains to be demonstrated in patients with Paget’s disease of bone (PDB). Moreover whether vitamin D supplementat...

Vertebral fractures (VFX) are the most prevalent fracture associated with osteoporosis and often cause severe pain which can become chronic. VFX are associated with a high risk of further fracture, increased mortality, and reduced quality of life. Vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty are techniques involving the percutaneous injection of bone cement into one or more symptomatic fractured vertebrae. In vertebroplasty, cement is injected directly into the bone, while in kyphoplasty, c...

The maintenance and adaptation of bone morphology results from orchestrated remodeling processes. These processes are locally coordinated by osteocytes with biochemical signals that result in increased or decreased bone formation or resorption activities. To better understand the morphology, we therefore have to understand how osteocytes determine dynamic morphometric parameters within their local microenvironment. Recently, a local in vivo environment (LivE)...

Breast cancer is the most frequent malignancy in women and frequently results in osteolytic bone metastases. Amino-bisphosphonates are a standard bone protective therapy and, similarly to statins, inhibit the mevalonate pathway that is crucial for posttranslational protein modifications (farnesylation and geranylation). Direct anti-tumor effects of amino-bisphosphonates and statins have been suggested but high concentrations are necessary to achieve meaningful effects. Our stu...

: Osteonecrosis of the jaws (ONJ) is a relatively new adverse effect associated with bisphosphonate therapy, but no causal association has been established. By definition, a patient is considered to suffer from ONJ if he has current or previous treatment with a bisphosphonate, exposed bone in the maxillofacial region that has persisted for more than 8 weeks and no history of radiation therapy to the jaws. It has been proposed that ONJ could be linked with impaired topical immu...

Osteoporosis is the commonest worldwide age-related bone disease. It is clinically symptomless until the first fracture happens. Circulating microRNAs can be used as novel biomarkers to assess health status and progression of complex diseases. A recent review highlighted the involvement of microRNAs in the control of bone formation and remodeling. Most of these studies have been done on animal models, but few on human blood samples.This research aims to ...

Risk factors for osteoporosis are often present among patients referred for diagnostic CT scans. Recent UK Clinical Guidelines (NICE-CG146) promote the initial use of FRAX in the majority of patients at risk of osteoporotic fracture, in any health setting. We gained approval and NHS Innovation funding for a pilot service whereby patients undergoing a routine clinical CT scan of the abdomen or pelvis could be screened by estimating their 10-year fracture risk. Patient and radio...

The aims of this study were to analyze the role of the regulators of bone remodeling, OPG and RANKL, in the bone loss associated with recent spinal cord injury (SCI) as well as the effect of antiosteoporotic therapy with denosumab in these bone regulators in a prospective study.Patients and methods: Twenty-three male patients (aged 18–67 years (mean 36±16 years)) with recent (<6 months) complete SCI were prospectively included (43.5% parapl...

Clinical trials suggest that denosumab (DEN) therapy results in greater increases in bone mineral density (BMD) in treatment-naive patients than in patients switched from bisphosphonates.We retrospectively reviewed charts of all patients treated with DEN at an osteoporosis referral centre in Vancouver, Canada including all patients treated with DEN 60 mg SC every 6 months for 1 year or more, and in whom baseline and follow-up BMDs were available. BMD was...