Changes in trabecular and cortical bone microarchitecture at peripheral sites associated with 18 months of teriparatide therapy in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Teriparatide in the context of osteoporosis and bone density, published as a clinical trial.

Teriparatide is an established anabolic therapy for osteoporosis; however, treatment effects at the distal radius are unclear.

Therefore, the researchers aimed to monitor changes in bone microarchitecture and estimated strength at the distal radius and tibia in osteoporotic postmenopausal women.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 11 women taking part.

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, women only.

Ten of the women received bisphosphonate therapy prior to starting on teriparatide.

In addition to the standard analysis, the researchers quantified cortical bone mineral density (BMD), porosity, and thickness using an automated segmentation procedure and estimated bone strength (ultimate stress) using finite element analysis.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Bone Density, Bone Density Conservation Agents, Drug Monitoring, Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal, Radius, Stress, Mechanical and Teriparatide.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a clinical trial of Teriparatide in 11 women in people with osteoporosis and bone density.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 7 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2011 (Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA), a journal based in England.

More context: the Teriparatide compound page, Osteoporosis and bone density research.