Biological secondary contributors to osteoporosis in fractured patients, is an early systematic assay relevant?

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the prevalence of biological abnormalities leading to secondary osteoporosis in recently fractured patients.

METHODS

Adults older than 50, hospitalized for a non-vertebral fracture from July 2015 to October 2016, were assessed for bone fragility contributors in the orthopedics department. Bone mineral density (BMD) measurements and vertebral fracture assessment (VFA) were performed within 3 months. We assessed the prevalence of biological abnormalities in all the patients with recent fracture and in subgroups.

RESULTS

Among 439 hospitalized patients for non-vertebral low trauma fracture, 372 had biological tests (285 women, mean age 77.5 ± 13 years) and 353 (94.6%) had at least ≥ 1 biological abnormality, most frequently vitamin D insufficiency (< 75 nmol/L) (80%). Hypercalcemia was found in 22 (7.7%) patients, explained by possible primary hyperparathyroidism in 6 cases, and by the other causes of hypercalcemia including postoperative low albumin. A high PTH level was observed in 64 (20.8%) patients. We found 3 monoclonal bands. Results were similar in patients with and without vertebral fracture or osteoporosis. Finally, many biological abnormalities can be explained by the postoperative context (low TSH, hypogammaglobulinemia, low albumin, low alkaline phosphatase) and need a control.

CONCLUSION

This study performed in patient with recent low trauma non-vertebral fractures showed that 94.6% of patients had at least one contributor to bone fragility, which was the vitamin D insufficiency in most of cases. We found a high proportion of biological abnormalities which require additional explorations but most of them can be explained by the postoperative context.