Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a risk factor for osteoporotic fractures although bone mineral density is increased. As such, there is a need for improved approaches to estimate fracture risk in such individuals. The Trabecular Bone Score (TBS) is a new technique to determine the trabecular bone microarchitecture.

Objective: Our aim was to evaluate evaluate the usefulness of TBS in T2DM patients.

Methods: We compared TBS values in T2DM group (n: 31) and control group (n: 25) and we analized its relationship with bone mineral density (BMD), history of prior fractures and glycemic control. BMD was evaluated by conventional bone densitometry (DXA) and 3D (3D-DXA).TBS values were determined using TBS InSight® software.

Results: T2DM patients had lower TBS than controls (1.14±0,17 vs 1.25±0,16, P=0.013). However, there were no differences in the densitometric or volumetric parameters measured by conventional DXA and 3D-DXA. In T2DM group, TBS at the lumbar spine showed degraded microarchitecture (TBS ≤ 1.2) in 16 patients (51.6%); 13 patients (41.9%) had partially degraded structure (TBS >1.20 & < 1.35); and only 2 patients (6.5%) had normal TBS values (TBS ≥1.35). TBS results differed between groups close to statistical significance (Default 1). We did not find diferences in TBS values according densitometric diagnosis of osteoporosis (Tscore ≤ 2.5 S.D.) or history of prior fracture in either group. We found a significant correlation of TBS with age, body mass index and lumbar spine BMN both in diabetic patients and controls (P < 0.05). Finally, we did not observe relationship with glycemic control or duration of diabetes in T2DM group.

Conclusion: TBS is shown as a promising method in the clinical assessment of trabecular bone microstructure in T2DM.