Relationship between decreased bone mineral density and subclinical atherosclerosis in postmenopausal women

Abstract

Objectives The study aimed to compare measurements of coronary artery calcification (CAC) and bone mineral density (BMD) in postmenopausal women.Methods The CAC of the women was measured with electron beam tomography using a GE Imatron C150 XP EBT scanner. Subjects with calcium scores above 0 were classified as CAC(+); those without detectable coronary calcium were classified as CAC(−). BMD was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). Patients were divided into two groups, depending on the T scores of their lumbar spine, into those with normal bone and those with osteopenia-osteoporosis.Results The proportions of patients classified as CAC(+) were 20% in the normal group and 60% in the osteopenia-osteoporosis group (p = 0.037). BMD values in L1–4 were 1.13 ± 2.29 and 0.98 ± 2.79 g/cm2 in the normal group and osteopenia-osteoporosis group, respectively and the mean total CAC scores were 1.34 ± 1.2 and 69.0 ± 20.5, respectively. The CAC scores of patients with osteopenia-osteoporosis were significantly higher compared with those of the normal group (p = 0.014).Conclusion The study shows that postmenopausal women with decreased bone mineral density may have higher risk of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis.