Predicting Osteopenia and Osteoporosis with a Simple Test: A Preliminary Work.

OBJECTIVE: The occurrence of osteopenia and osteoporosis is a major problem of ageing. For assessing the severity of bone loss, bone mineral density (BMD) measurement is the gold standard. Because of the limitations of BMD, use of simpler serum-based tests to classify osteoporosis/osteopenia patients is gaining interest. In this preliminary work, we aimed to discriminate between healthy individuals and osteoporosis/osteopenia patients through a simple serum-based equation.

METHODS: In this study, blood from 84 elderly persons were collected and levels of vitamin D, calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), copper (Cu) and strontium (Sr) were analysed. Additionally, all persons included in the study underwent BMD measurement.

RESULTS: Bone mineral density showed that 28 persons had osteoporosis, 28 persons suffered from osteopenia and 28 persons were classified as normal. Using the above-mentioned parameters and major determinants of bone loss disorders, ie age and body mass index (BMI), we suggested various equations. The "Osteo-Pars" equation that is derived from the formula [(Sr × Age)/BMI] showed the best diagnostic accuracy in receiver operating characteristic analysis.

CONCLUSION: The suggested equation is a simple model that obtains reasonable results in discriminating healthy individuals from patients with osteopenia/osteoporosis. More study is needed to reach an exact, conclusive statement about the potential clinical application of this equation in the assessment of bone loss severity.