Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: The metabolic syndrome (MS), which includes obesity, dyslipidemia, impaired glucose tolerance, and hypertension, is a major public health problem. The prevalence of MS among women in postmenopausal period is nearly 24%. In postmenopausal period the accelerated bone loss, contributing to the development of osteoporosis begins. Obesity or increased body mass index (BMI) is known to have a protective effect against osteoporosis. However, recent studies demonstrated that the MS can raise the risk of osteoporotic fractures. The purpose of our study was to reveal associations between components of the MS and BMD in postmenopausal women.

Design and method: The sample consisted of 47 postmenopausal women (age: mean=62.1; S.D.=1.2; duration of menopause: mean=12.7; S.D=1.2). Women were considered to have the MS (according to IDF (2005 years) criteria) if they had waist circumference >80 cm and two or more of the following abnormalities: hypertriglyceridemia ≥1.7 mmol/l; low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol < 1.29 mmol/l; high blood pressure ≥130/85 mm Hg or use of antihypertensive medication; high fasting glucose ≥5.6 mmol/l or use of antidiabetic medication (insulin or oral agents). Total body, lumbar spine, femoral neck, ulna radius bone mineral density (BMD) measured by dual-energy X-ray absortiometry were compared for the cohorts with and without the MS. Other parameters including age, weight, height, waist circumference, the level of glucose, lipids were taken into account. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package 6.0 (Statsoft).

Results: Findings revealed that 28 (59.6%) of these postmenopausal women had MS. 18 (64.3%) of them had three components of MS, 8 (28.6%) had four components and 2 (7.1%) had all of them. In patients with and without MS compared, BMD was lower in the former group at lumber spine (1.01±0.03 and 1.17±0.04, respectively; F=10.2; P=0.002), femoral neck (0.83±0.02; 0.97±0.03, respectively; F=14.6; P=0.0004), ulna radius (0.59±0.02; 0.69±0.02, respectively; F=13.1; P=0.0008), total body (1.03±0.02; 1.16±0.02, respectively; F=20.5; P=0.00005). Increasing quantity of the MS components in women during the postmenopausal period had a negative correlation with BMD at every site. Frequency of osteoporosis (according to WHO (2004 years) recommendations) was higher at all sites exept femoral neck in patients with MS. Data is shown in a table.

Conclusion: Development of MS in postmenopausal women increases the risk for the negative changes in BMD (such as osteopenia and osteoporosis). Furthermore, postmenopausal women need observation to prevent the development osteoporotic fractures.