Effects of teriparatide and alendronate on vertebral strength as assessed by finite element modeling of QCT scans in women with osteoporosis

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Teriparatide in this randomized controlled trial publication.

FE modeling was used to estimate the biomechanical effects of teriparatide and alendronate on lumbar vertebrae.

Who Took Part

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

A subset of patients (N = 28 TPTD; N = 25 ALN) from the Forteo Alendronate Comparator Trial who had QCT scans of the spine at baseline and postbaseline were analyzed.

How the Study Was Run

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

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Teriparatide group and the comparison group should start out alike.

As a double-blind Teriparatide study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

The QCT scans were analyzed for compressive strength of the L(3) vertebra using FE modeling.

In addition, using controlled parameter studies of the FE models, the effects of changes in density, density distribution, and geometry on strength were calculated, a strength:density ratio was determined, and a response to bending was also quantified.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Alendronate, Bone Density, Bone Density Conservation Agents, Lumbar Vertebrae, Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal, Radiography and Shear Strength.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and double-blind study of Teriparatide.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 7 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2007 (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.