Osteoporosis Linked with Lung Disease in Men

NEW REPORT LINKS OSTEOPOROSIS WITH LUNG DISEASE IN MEN

For Release: November 10, 1998
Contact: Mike White, 703 739-1363, mfwhite@earthlink.net
Jim Augustine, 703 644-6824
As of Nov. 8, 1998, call the ACCP Press Room at 416.583.3710

Men with chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) are more likely to develop osteoporosis particularly if they are treated with either inhaled or oral corticosteroids, according to a new report presented at CHEST 1998 -- the annual scientific assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) being held in Toronto.
One hundred twenty-four male patients participated in the four-year study at the Veterans Administration Medical Center at Emory University in Atlanta. Dr. Jeffrey Michaelson and colleagues divided them into four groups. One group of COPD patients received both oral and the inhaled corticosteroids; a second group of COPD patients received just the inhaled corticosteroids; and, a third group of COPD patients did not receive corticosteroids. A fourth group of hypertensive patients served as controls. Urine N-telopeptide (N-telo) was used as a marker of bone resorption and bone mineral density measurements were recorded during the study.
Investigators found that compared to the control groups, all three of the COPD patient groups had reduced bone density. They concluded that COPD in and of itself is associated with increased risk of osteoporosis. They also said the study showed that using inhaled corticosteroids as opposed to oral corticosteroids does not protect patients from osteoporosis. In addition, the researchers said that patients with elevated N-telo may comprise a subgroup of osteoporotic patients with a high resorption rate and thereby serves as a marker that either predicts a higher risk of fracture or identifies a population more likely to benefit from therapy. They said that future studies will address these possibilities.
In the October, 1998 issue of the ACCP peer-reiewed journal, CHEST, investigators from Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City found widespread bone loss and increased risk of osteoporosis in an emerging patient population described as the chronically critically ill (CCI). An accompanying editorial in the journal hailed that study as important in that it added yet more evidence that patients with lung disorders suffer from either low bone mineral density or the physiology that predisposes to bone loss.
Although widely thought of as a woman's disease, one out of five osteoporosis patients is male. The National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) says that by the age of 75, one third of all men are affected by osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is believed responsible for 300,000 hip fractures each year in the United States. And, while the rate of hip fracture is two to three times higher in women than men, the death rate for men within one year after a hip fracture is significantly higher than it is for women. There are a number of pharmacologic therapies that have been approved for women. None have been approved for men. Physicians wishing to treat men for osteoporosis with drug therapies must go "off label," i.e. using drugs for men that have been approved only for women.

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