Alcoholism-associated spinal and femoral bone loss in abstinent male alcoholics, as measured by dual X-ray absorptiometry
✍ Scribed by K. S. Chon; D. J. Sartoris; S. A. Brown; P. Clopton
- Publisher
- Springer
- Year
- 1992
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 643 KB
- Volume
- 21
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0364-2348
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Although alcoholism is a known risk factor for osteoporosis, there are few published reports on alcoholism-associated bone loss. To study alcoholism-associated bone loss, this study used a dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) densitometer to measure lumbar and femoral bone mineral density (BMD) in a previously littlestudied population: 32 relatively healthy, nonhospitalized, Caucasian, alcoholic men with a period of abstinence longer than that previously studied (median abstinencc 4.0 months, range 3 days-36 months). DXA is a new, highly precise densitometric method with many advantages over the methods used in previous studies. The subjects had statistically significant bone loss at three sites: lumbar spine, femoral neck, and Ward's triangle (multiple correction adjusted two-tailed P<0.008). Compared to the mean BMD of sex-, age-, and racematched norms, the subjects' average femoral neck, Ward's triangle, and lumbar BMDs were, respectively, 0.56, 0.69, and 0.57 standard deviations (SDs) below the normative values.