Early changes in biochemical markers of bone turnover predict the long-term response to alendronate therapy in representative elderly women: a randomized clinical trial.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vitamin D and Alendronate, published as a randomized controlled trial.

The objective of this study was to examine whether early changes in biochemical markers of bone turnover predict long-term changes in hip BMD in elderly women.

Why It Was Studied

Examining short-term changes in biochemical markers incorporates physiologic response with therapeutic compliance and should provide useful prognostic information for patients.

The study was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial which took place in a community-based academic hospital.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as older adults, women only.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled.

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

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Vitamin D, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Vitamin D could be set against what happens without it.

What Was Measured

The principal outcome measures included BMD of the hip (total hip, femoral neck, trochanter, and intertrochanter), spine (posteroanterior [PA] and lateral), total body, and radius.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Alendronate, Alkaline Phosphatase, Amino Acids, Biomarkers, Bone Density, Bone Resorption and Calcium, Dietary.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D and Alendronate.

The publication is from 1998 (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 related Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc library page, all human trials.