the presence of osteoporosis in patients with hip and knee osteoarthritis (OA) has important implications for understanding disease progression and providing optimal surgical and medical management.
to determine the prevalence of osteoporosis among patients with osteoarthritis awaiting total knee arthroplasty or total hip arthroplasty aged between 65 and 80 years.
cross-sectional observational study.
tertiary referral centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
patients with osteoarthritis awaiting total knee hip arthroplasty aged between 65 and 80 years.
lumbar spine, bilateral femoral and forearm bone mineral density (BMD) measurements were obtained using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry.
the cohort consisted of 199 patients with a mean age of 72 years (SD 4), and 113 (57%) were women. The overall rate of osteoporosis at any site was 23% (46/199) and a further 43% (85/199) of patients would have been classified as osteopaenic according to World Health Organization criteria. Osteoporosis was more commonly detected in the forearm (14%) than the lumbar spine (8.5%) and proximal femur of the index side (8.2%).
in summary, a significant proportion of patients with end-stage OA have osteoporosis but this diagnosis may be missed unless BMD measurements are performed at sites distant from joints affected by OA.