Differential effects of teriparatide and alendronate on bone remodeling in postmenopausal women assessed by histomorphometric parameters

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Teriparatide in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to explore the differential effects of these two osteoporosis treatments at the bone tissue level by examining bone histomorphometric parameters of bone turnover after either 6 or 18 months of treatment.

Why It Was Studied

Biopsies were obtained from 42 patients.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 42 patients taking part.

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults and older adults, women only.

Transiliac crest bone biopsies were obtained after tetracycline double labeling from 42 patients treated for 6 months (n = 23) or 18 months (n = 14); 5 additional patients were biopsied from contralateral sides at 6 and 18 months.

Biopsy specimens adequate for quantitative analysis were analyzed by 2D histomorphometry from 17 patients at 6 months (teriparatide, n = 8; alendronate, n = 9) and 15 patients at 18 months (teriparatide, n = 8; alendronate, n = 7).

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and parallel-group study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Teriparatide and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Blinding on both sides kept the patients and researchers unaware of who received Teriparatide.

Groups ran in parallel: each of the patients stayed in one arm throughout.

The methods mention a period of 6 months.

Data were analyzed by two-sample tests.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Absorptiometry, Photon, Alendronate, Biomarkers, Bone Density, Bone Remodeling, Calcification, Physiologic and Ilium.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and parallel-group study of Teriparatide in 42 patients over 6 months.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2005 (Journal of bone and mineral research : the official journal of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research), a journal based in England.

More context: the Teriparatide compound page, all human trials.