P Gerdhem

..993 individuals were scored by at least one of four observers...

..During a mean 7-year follow-up, high homocysteine level was associated with mortality, but no clear association to fracture risk existed...

..Questions on daily physical activity correlated modestly with accelerometer results in elderly women. Accelerometer results were not correlated to measures of balance, muscle strength and bone density...

..001). Any study concerning the risk of fracture may attract those with experience of a fracture which explains the higher previous life-time incidence among the attendees. This factor may cause bias in epidemiological studies...

..The high bone mass and low bone turnover is not likely to have a strong influence on fracture susceptibility...

..However, a subgroup of women with 25OHD levels below 20 ng/ml had a tendency to an increased risk of fractures, which may be associated with an inferior physical activity and postural stability...

..Baseline bone turnover markers correlated with baseline QUS as well as with 5-year prospective changes in QUS...

..Nevertheless, training in elderly women may have advantages by improving balance, co-ordination and mobility and therefore decreasing the risk of fractures...

..Several bone formation and resorption markers as well as urinary osteocalcin were modestly correlated to rate of bone density change...

..The presence of at least one copy of the "s" allele was associated with lower femoral neck BMD and previous wrist fracture and in addition, it was related to an increased risk for wrist fracture...

..Neither was it possible to find an effect of physical activity in those women with the highest BMD at all sites, suggesting that other factors are of greater importance for maintaining bone mass in elderly women...

..This difference is detected by DXA but not by ultrasound measurements of the calcaneus or the phalanges. The present data are encouraging since no bone mass differences were found between former and never-smokers...

..Estrogens regulate bone mass by binding to the estrogen receptor (ER)-alpha as well as ER-beta. The specific ERalpha cofactor retinoblastoma-interacting zinc finger protein (RIZ)-1 enhances ERalpha function in the presence of estrogen...

..It is currently unknown, however, whether a vertebroplasty or a kyphoplasty gives a better outcome than nonoperative treatment, and whether the long-term results are as favorable as the short-term results...

....

..Markers were not altered in the immediate postfracture period but were clearly elevated during fracture repair. Recent fracture should thus be taken into account when markers are used in clinical practice...

..OC is excreted into urine by glomerular filtration and can be found in urine as midmolecule fragments...

..One of the important challenges in the management of osteoporosis is to identify women who are at high risk of developing osteoporosis and fragility fractures...

..CONCLUSION: These results show that biochemical markers of bone turnover can predict fracture, and in particular, fractures that engage trabecular bone. S-TRACP5b and U-OC are promising new markers for prediction of fracture...

..We investigated the relationship between BMP2 polymorphisms and body composition in young and elderly women...

....

..To examine the association between previous fracture and different aspects of physical performance...

..20-0.33, P = 0.049-0.001) the more recently the fracture had been sustained. Women with low current physical activity had elevated levels of U-DPD/crea (P < 0.001) and one U-OC (P = 0.014), while the other markers were unaffected...

..Fall risk assessment is important because the consequences, such as a fracture, may be devastating. The objective of this study was to find the test or tests that best predicted falls in a population-based sample of elderly women...

..Subjective estimation of the biological age, in relation to the chronological age, is a valuable indicator of health, conveying additional information that merits its use in clinical practice...

..Age at menarche or menopause seems to be of limited or no importance as a risk factor for osteoporosis when subjects are age 75 or older...

..This association may be related primarily to an altered bone quality identified by QUS and not a lower bone mass. This is also the first demonstration of association of IL-6 gene polymorphism to calcaneal QUS...

..In elderly women living at a northern latitude, BMD may be a few percent lower during the period July-December compared to the period January-June...

..Thus, the measurement of osteocalcin fragments in urine may have potential applications in diagnostics related to disorders of bone metabolism...

..In summary, the present data indicate that US of the phalanges is not a usable tool for estimating fracture risk in an elderly female population...