Aggravation of spinal cord compromise following new osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture prevented by teriparatide in patients with surgical contraindications

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Teriparatide in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Patients with spinal cord deficits following new unstable osteoporotic compression fracture and surgical contraindications were considered to receive conservative treatment.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 49 patients taking part.

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

This was a 12-month, randomized, open-label study of teriparatide versus alendronate in 49 patients with new unstable OVCF and surgical contraindications.

Visual analog scale (VAS) scores, kyphotic angles, anterior-border heights and diameters of the spinal canal of the fractured vertebrae, any incident of new OVCFs (onset of OVCF during follow-up), spine bone mineral density (BMD), and serum markers of bone resorption and bone formation were also examined at baseline and 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after initiation of the medication regimen.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and open-label study.

Because people in this Teriparatide study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Nothing was hidden in this open-label Teriparatide study: the patients and staff both knew the treatment.

Neurological function was evaluated using modified Japanese Orthopedic Association (mJOA) score (11-point scale, the maximum score of 11 implies normalcy).

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Alendronate, Biomarkers, Bone Density, Bone Density Conservation Agents, Bone Remodeling, Contraindications and Fractures, Compression.

Author keywords: Osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture, Spinal cord compromise and Teriparatide.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and open-label study of Teriparatide in 49 patients.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 4 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2016 (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, all human trials.