Six months of parathyroid Hormone (1-84) administered concurrently versus sequentially with monthly ibandronate over two years: the PTH and ibandronate combination study (PICS) randomized trial

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The researchers evaluated two novel approaches to the use of 6 months of PTH therapy over 2 yr.

Who Took Part

The study group was 44 women.

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

The researchers conducted a randomized, double-blinded trial of two combinations of daily PTH(1-84) and monthly ibandronate in 44 postmenopausal women with low bone mass.

Participants received either 6 months of concurrent PTH and ibandronate, followed by 18 months of ibandronate (concurrent) or two sequential courses of 3 months of PTH followed by 9 months of ibandronate (sequential) over 2 yr.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and pilot study.

Because people in this Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84) study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Blinding on both sides kept the women and researchers unaware of who received Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84).

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84) study would be practical.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Biomarkers, Bone Density, Bone Density Conservation Agents, Diphosphonates, Fractures, Bone, Ibandronic Acid and Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and pilot study of Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84) in 44 women.

Results are reported in around 8 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2012 (The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84) compound page.