INFO - What is osteopenia?

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Osteoporosis and Bone Physiology

University of Washington

Dr Ott

What is osteopenia?

In 1994 a committee of the World Health Organization suggested the

term " osteopenia " should be used for persons whose bone density was

somewhat low. Bone density can be measured in units called " T-scores "

and osteopenia was a T-score between -1 and -2.5. This category was

intended for epidemiology studies and was not meant to suggest

anything about treatment. A " T-score " of -1 is a statistical value

which is the level at which 16% of people are below the level and 84%

of people are above it. For example, height could be stated in

T-scores. For height, the T-score of -1 is at 5'2 " , because about 16%

of Caucasian women are shorter than 5'2 " . The committee decided to

base the bone density T-scores on a group of young Caucasian women.

Therefore, by definition, 16% of young women have osteopenia.

Osteopenia is not a disease!

In the United States, about 50% of women older than 65 and about 90%

of elderly women have osteopenia. This is because bone density

naturally decreases with aging.

Many patients who had osteopenia were treated with osteoporosis

medications, even when these medications had not been shown to prevent

fractures in women who did not yet have osteoporosis.

In 2008, the World Health Organization recommended that the bone

density should be interpreted according to the risk of getting a

fracture within the next ten years. This fracture risk can be

calculated from the bone density combined with other clinical risk

factors such as age, weight, diseases, and habits. It is better to

decide about treatment using the fracture risk than using the bone

density alone.

If there were a perfect bone-building drug that was 100% safe and that

worked for 50 years or more, then it would make sense to treat all

persons with osteopenia, and fractures would only be seen after

serious accidents. Unfortunately, there is no such perfect drug.

Therefore, a few patients with osteopenia will benefit from our

current osteoporosis drugs, but most will need only healthy diets and

exercise, and everybody should avoid smoking cigarettes and drinking

excessive alcohol.

Ott, M.D.

8/18/09

http://courses.washington.edu/bonephys/ptinfo/ptopenia.html

Not an MD