Authors: M A Périer E Gineyts F Munoz E SornayRendu P D Delmas
Publish Date: 2007/06/05
Volume: 18, Issue: 10, Pages: 1329-1336
Abstract
Homocysteine has recently been described as an independent risk factor for osteoporotic fractures in the elderly We prospectively followed 671 postmenopausal women belonging to the OFELY study mean age 62 years during a mean followup of 10 years After adjustment for age there was no significant relation between the plasma level of homocysteine and the subsequent risk of fracturePlasma homocysteine increases with age Recent studies have described homocysteine as an independent risk factor for osteoporotic fractures in elderly We investigated the role of plasma homocysteine in the subsequent risk of fractures in healthy ambulatory postmenopausal womenHomocysteine was measured at baseline in 671 postmenopausal women from the OFELY cohort mean age 622 ± 9 years Incident clinical fractures were recorded during annual followup and vertebral fractures were evaluated with radiographs every four years A cox proportional hazards model based on time to first fracture was used to calculate hazard ratios for quartiles of homocysteine valuesMean homocysteine was 106 ± 34 μmol/l increasing with age After adjustment for age homocysteine was significantly associated with physical activity calcium intake serum albumin and serum creatinine but not with bone turnover markers and bone mineral density During a mean followup of 10 years 183 fractures occurred among 134 women After adjustment for age the overall relative risk of fracture for each 1 SD increment of homocysteine was 103 95CI 087–131 Fracture risk was higher in women with homocysteine in the highest quartile without adjustment but no longer after adjustment for age
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