Bone loss discovery 'holds key to osteoporosis diagnosis and care'

Bone loss discovery in Australia could hold key to osteoporosis diagnosis and treatment

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Friday, 14, May 2010 12:00

By Sarah Garrod.

Medical researchers have said today that age-related cortical bone loss might hold the key to osteoporosis diagnosis and treatment.

Writing in the Lancet, the researchers say that contrary to current views, most fractures in old-age occur after 65 years of age, and are not vertebral - being the result of greater loss of cortical rather than trabecular bone.

They say that drugs that target the decay of cortical bone could reduce fracture risk and should be used to treat age-related bone loss.

The revolutionary research switched the emphasis from focussing on trabecular bone loss and fractures of the vertebrae, or back bones, which contain large amounts of trabecular bone, to cortical bone.

In an accompanying comment, David Burr from Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis said that the study is important because it highlights how much bone loss in osteoporosis is cortical and emphasises that "drugs targeting cortical bone should be used to treat age-related bone loss late in life".