Endocrine Abstracts

Anabolic agents hold the promise of rebuilding the skeleton and thus producing a greater fracture reduction that antiresorptive agents. PTH (either 1–34 or 1–84) suggests improvements in mass and structure, and for 1-34rhPTH significant reductions in vertebral and non-vertebral fractures. Whether the fracture benefits are indeed greater than those seen with bisphosphonates is not clear. The limited duration of clinical trials (and treatment in practice) makes it diff...

Parathyroid hormone (PTH) is a novel treatment for osteoporosis, that stimulates bone formation and turnover, unlike current treatments that are antiresorptive in their actions. Both the entire molecule (1-84hPTH) and the amino-terminus of the molecule (1-34hPTH) are being studied in clinical trials. In 8 recent clinical trials (two involving males with osteoporosis) PTH has been shown to produce larger increments in vertebral bone mass than any currently available agent. In s...