Relationship between decreased bone mineral density and subclinical atherosclerosis in postmenopausal women.

Objective: The study aimed to compare measurements of coronary artery calcification (CAC) and bone mineral density (BMD) in postmenopausal women.

Methods: The CAC of the women was measured with electron beam tomography using a GE Imatron C150 XP EBT scanner. Subjects with calcium scores above 0 were classified as CAC(+); those without detectable coronary calcium were classified as CAC(-). BMD was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). Patients were divided into two groups, depending on the T scores of their lumbar spine, into those with normal bone and those with osteopenia-osteoporosis.

Results: The proportions of patients classified as CAC(+) were 20% in the normal group and 60% in the osteopenia-osteoporosis group (p = 0.037). BMD values in L1-4 were 1.13 +/- 2.29 and 0.98 +/- 2.79 g/cm(2) in the normal group and osteopenia-osteoporosis group, respectively and the mean total CAC scores were 1.34 +/- 1.2 and 69.0 +/- 20.5, respectively. The CAC scores of patients with osteopenia-osteoporosis were significantly higher compared with those of the normal group (p = 0.014).

Conclusions: The study shows that postmenopausal women with decreased bone mineral density may have higher risk of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis.