Trabecular Bone Score in Patients With Chronic Glucocorticoid Therapy-Induced Osteoporosis Treated With Alendronate or Teriparatide

What Was Tested

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

To determine the effect of alendronate (ALN) and teriparatide on trabecular bone score (TBS) in patients with glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 118 patients were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults, both men and women.

Dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) results for 53 patients receiving ALN and 56 patients receiving teriparatide who had DXA scans with adequate resolution to perform TBS analysis and completed 36 months of therapy were blindly analyzed for TBS at baseline and 3, 6, 12, 18, 24, and 36 months.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized and double-blind.

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

Neither the patients nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Teriparatide, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Alendronate, Bone Density Conservation Agents, Cancellous Bone, Chronic Disease, Glucocorticoids, Osteoporosis and Prednisone.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and double-blind study of Teriparatide in 118 patients in people with osteoporosis and bone density.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 8 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2016 (Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.)), a journal based in United States.

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