CHICAGO—The osteoporosis session at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting opened with a discussion by Kenneth Saag, MD, MSc, professor of medicine at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, in which he highlighted adverse events associated with osteoporosis medications. Dr. Saag began his presentation by emphasizing that, above all, the audience should keep in mind that the…
(Reuters Health)—Older women with osteoporosis who consistently take a bisphosphonate may have a lower risk of fractures and lower total health costs than their counterparts who stop taking these drugs, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers examined data on 294,369 women who were at least 66 years old, insured by Medicare and prescribed osteoporosis medicines for…
BALTIMORE—Rheumatologists may not think about osteoporosis on a daily basis, but they should, said Dr. Karl Insogna, the Ensign Professor of Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine and director of the Yale Bone Center in New Haven, Conn., in his recent lecture at the Maryland Society for the Rheumatic Diseases. With approximately 75 million…
CHICAGO—A 75-year-old woman with low bone density, who has had a fracture and has other risk factors for fracture, is treated with the bisphosphonate alendronate. After five years on the drug she comes back, wondering: Should I stop taking the drug? She’s had no additional fractures. Her bone density has improved, but her lumbar spine…
A study identified denosumab as a useful treatment for patients initiating or continuing glucocorticoids who are at risk for fractures. Denosumab had clinical effects similar to risedronate but was more effective than risedronate in the improvement of bone mineral density at the lumbar spine…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—The RANKL inhibitor denosumab is superior to the bisphosphonate risedronate in increasing bone-mineral density (BMD) at the lumbar spine in patients just starting or continuing steroid therapy, according to 12-month results of a 24-month randomized controlled study. “Glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis is the most common form of secondary osteoporosis and increases the risk of…
Bisphosphonate Drug Holidays Drug holidays are common for patients on bisphosphonate therapy. Often, these breaks in treatment are related to known U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warnings and drug class adverse effects. Currently, data on fracture risk related to drug holidays are limited. In recent research highlighted at the 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting ,…
New research found women on bisphosphonate therapy who take a drug holiday experience a higher rate of hip fracture…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Early oral bisphosphonate use is associated with a lower risk of fractures among oral-glucocorticoid users, researchers from Canada report. Bisphosphonates are commonly used for glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis, but their efficacy has been established only in primary osteoporosis, where the mechanism of action of bone loss differs from that seen with glucocorticoid use. Dr….
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—The rate of knee replacement surgery among older women with knee osteoarthritis is lower in those who take bisphosphonates than in those who don’t, according to a database study. Knee osteoarthritis accounts for 97% of all knee replacement surgeries. Trials of bisphosphonates in knee osteoarthritis have yielded conflicting results. To learn more,…