Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Cortisone-induced osteoporosis (CO) is the most frequent complication of corticosteroid therapy. It is the first cause of secondary osteoporosis. The aim of this study is to clarify the characteristics of CO.

Patients and Methods: We report a retrospective study of 39 cases of CO among 128 cases of osteoporosis during a 15-year period. The diagnosis of CO was based on a bone densitometry (BMD) of more than -1.5 standard deviations.

Results: Thirty-nine cases of CO were collected. Its frequency is 30.5% of the total osteoporosis series and 85.7% of secondary osteoporosis. There were 34 women (87.5%) and 5 men (12.5%). The average age at diagnosis was 59 years. CO was more frequent in younger subjects with a significant correlation (P=0.011). All our patients received long-term systemic corticosteroid treatment. The average cumulative dose of corticosteroid therapy (CT) was 26 g of prednisone (extremes 0.4-65 g). The average duration of CT was 14.5 years (extremes 2-18 years). The indications for CT were: systemic disease in 33 cases, haematological disease (3 cases), dermatological disease (2 cases) and uveitis (1 case). BMD showed a mean vertebral T-score of -2.78 standard deviations. In addition to vitamin and calcium therapy in all patients, bisphosphanates were administered in 23 patients and strontium ranelate in one case.

Conclusion: CO is the main cause of secondary osteoporosis in our series.