Abstract
Background and PurposeType 2 diabetes mellitus patients have an increased fracture risk despite having higher areal bone mineral density (aBMD) measured by DXA. This apparent paradox might be explained by the overestimation of BMD by DXA due to the higher fat mass in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. Volumetric BMD (vBMD) as assessed by quantitative CT (QCT) is not influenced by fat mass. We assessed the association of vBMD and fasting plasma glucose in a large cohort of Chinese subjects and compared the vBMD in healthy and diabetic subjects. In addition, we compared the relation between aBMD, vBMD, glucose and fat mass in a subset of this cohort.Materials and Methods10309 participants from the China Biobank project underwent QCT based on chest low dose CT to compute vBMD of L1 and L2 vertebrae and FPG measurements between 2018 and 2019. Among them, 1037 subjects also had spine DXA scans. Data was analyzed using linear regression models.ResultsIn the total cohort (5889 men and 4420 women, mean age 53 years, range 30-96), there was no significant association between vBMD and FPG after adjustment for age (women: p=0.774; men: p=0.149). 291 women and 606 men fitted the diagnostic criteria of diabetes. Both women and men with diabetes had lower vBMD compared to non-diabetic subjects, but this became non-significant after adjusting for age in the total cohort (women: p=0.817; men: p=0.288) and after propensity score matching based on age (women: p=0.678; men: p=0.135). In the DXA subcohort, aBMD was significantly higher in men with diabetes after adjusting for age and this difference disappeared after further adjusting for total fat area (p=0.064).ConclusionWe did not find any effect of fasting plasma glucose or diabetes on the volumetric BMD measured with QCT after adjustment for age. Therefore, vBMD measured with QCT might be a more reliable measurement to diagnose osteoporosis and assess fracture risk than aBMD measured with DXA in diabetic patients.
Highlights
Type 2 diabetes mellitus and osteoporosis are common diseases in the ageing society, the relationship between these is less clear [1]
In the total cohort (5889 men and 4420 women, mean age 53 years, range 3096), there was no significant association between Volumetric BMD (vBMD) and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) after adjustment for age. 291 women and 606 men fitted the diagnostic criteria of diabetes
Both women and men with diabetes had lower vBMD compared to nondiabetic subjects, but this became non-significant after adjusting for age in the total cohort and after propensity score matching based on age
Summary
Type 2 diabetes mellitus and osteoporosis are common diseases in the ageing society, the relationship between these is less clear [1]. Since higher BMD is associated with lower fracture risk in the general population, this apparent paradox might be explained by the overestimation of areal BMD (aBMD) by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), the standard measurement method of BMD in clinical practice due to the higher fat mass in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients have an increased fracture risk despite having higher areal bone mineral density (aBMD) measured by DXA. This apparent paradox might be explained by the overestimation of BMD by DXA due to the higher fat mass in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. We compared the relation between aBMD, vBMD, glucose and fat mass in a subset of this cohort
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