Endocrine Abstracts

Background and aims: Patients with T1D present some predisposing factors to fractures. The aim of the present study is to analyse the bone tissue quality in T1DM women and healthy controls by bone microindentation, as well as their relationship with bone mineral density (BMD).

Materials and methods: Cross-sectional study including 45 women with T1D at least with one year of duration and 21 healthy controls adjusted by age and BMI. Women with osteoporosis or previous pathologic fractures, presence of diseases that predispose to the development of osteoporosis, and patients who did not consent to participate in the study were excluded. Anthropometric variables were collected using standardized methods. T1DM-related variables were collected. NCEP-ATP III modified criteria was used to define metabolic syndrome (MetS). A blood analysis was performed in all subjects, including fasting glucose, lipid profile, calcidiol, calcium and iPTH. In T1DM patients, glycated hemoglobin and albumin/creatinine ratio was also determined. BMD was measured in lumbar column, femoral neck and total femur in all subjects by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. BMS was obtained by microindentation technique.

Results: No differences between T1D patients and healthy controls were observed in BMS, BMD nor in calcium, iPTH or calcidiol (Table 1). Among T1D patients, mean HbA1c was 7.52%+1.0 and mean time since diagnosis was 22.6+12.2 years. 8 patients (17.7%) met the MetS criteria, and in 12 patients (26.7%) microvascular complications were present. A trend towards a lower BMS was observed in parallel to an increase of the number of Metabolic Syndrome criteria (79.2+8.5 vs 75.1+7.9, P 0.273, 1 vs3 or more MetS criteria, respectively) and in patients with microangiopathy (78.3+10.8 vs 80.5+7.6, P 0.447, in patients with and without microangiopathy, respectively).

Conclusion: T1DM women show bone tissue properties comparable to controls. Microangiopahy and MetS seems to affect negatively to BMS.