Bone loss discovery ‘holds key to osteoporosis diagnosis and care’

New research conducted in Australia has suggested that age-related cortical bone loss might hold the key to osteoporosis diagnosis and treatment.

Writing in the Lancet, the researchers said that contrary to current views, most fractures in old age occur after 65 years of age and are not vertebral, being the result of cortical rather than trabecular bone loss.

They said that drugs which target the decay of cortical bone could reduce fracture risk and should be used to treat age-related bone loss.

This potentially groundbreaking research could lead to a switch in emphasis away from focusing on trabecular bone loss and fractures of the vertebrae to cortical bone.

In an accompanying comment, David Burr from Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis said that the study is important because it highlights how much bone loss in osteoporosis is cortical and emphasises that “drugs targeting cortical bone should be used to treat age-related bone loss late in life”.