Effects of 4-year treatment with once-weekly clodronate on prevention of corticosteroid-induced bone loss and fractures in patients with arthritis: evaluation with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and quantitative ultrasound.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vitamin D and Prednisone, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Patients had started therapy with prednisone or its equivalent within the previous 100 days and had bone mineral density <2.5 SD below mean young normal values at the lumbar spine or femoral neck.

The primary outcome was the difference between the two treatment groups at months 12, 24, 36, and 48 in the mean percentage change from baseline in the bone mineral density of the lumbar spine, femur (neck and total), and total body.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are teenagers, adults, middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, women only.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this Vitamin D study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Vitamin D group a baseline to be compared against.

What Was Measured

The primary outcome was the difference between the two treatment groups at months 12, 24, 36, and 48 in the mean percentage change from baseline in the bone mineral density of the lumbar spine, femur (neck and total), and total body.

Secondary measurements included changes in the stiffness index evaluated by ultrasound measurements and the rate of new vertebral fractures.

The subject headings attached to it are Absorptiometry, Photon, Adrenal Cortex Hormones, Arthritis, Arthritis, Psoriatic, Arthritis, Rheumatoid, Bone Density and Calcium, Dietary.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D and Prednisone.

The publication is from 2003 (Bone), a journal based in United States.

More context: the related Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc library page, all human trials.