NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Baseline measures of bone density, microarchitecture and strength predict the risk of fragility fractures in postmenopausal women, according to results from the Calgary CaMOS cohort.
Changes in bone health were not associated with fracture risk, however, said Dr. Lauren A. Burt from the University of Calgary, Canada, who worked on the study.
“Irrespective of scanning technique—dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) or high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT)—there were no identified differences in rate of change for any bone parameter between women who fractured and women who did not fracture,” she tells Reuters Health by email.
HR-pQCT, which can assess three-dimensional bone microarchitecture and predict strength, outperforms DXA, which measures areal bone mineral density, in fracture discrimination. But it has been unclear if changes in these parameters are associated with future fragility fractures.