Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Although the cause and effect relationship between the hypophyseal deficiency and osteoporosis is known well, the number of studies concerning bone mineral density (BMD) in patients with Sheehan’s syndrome (SS) are scarce. We aimed to investigate the relationship between BMD and deficient hormones in patients with newly-diagnosed Sheehan’s syndrome.

Material and methods: Thirty-four patients with SS and age-gender-weight matched 22 controls were included in the study. Demographic data, biochemical hormonal values and BMD of the patients were recorded.

Results: We found osteoporosis in 61.8%, osteopenia in 32.3%, and normal dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) findings in 5.9% patients. In the control group 68.2% of individuals were osteopenic and 31.8% of them were normal. The number of osteoporotic patients was found to be higher and BMD values lower in the patient group compared with the control group. There was no relation of DEXA measurements with the period between the last delivery and the initial diagnosis and the estradiol levels. While there was no relation between IGF1 and T and Z scores of femur head but the relation between the of IGF1 and L1–L4 T scores was statistically significant (P=0.010). There was a significant relation between the IGF1 and L1–L4 Z scores (P=0.001).

Conclusion: SS patients had decreased BMD values compared with age-gender-weight adjusted control group. In conclusion SS patients should also be assessed in terms of osteoporosis at the time of diagnosis and then proper treatment should be initiated afterwards.

Key words: Sheehan’s syndrome, BMD, hypophyseal deficiency.