"I wondered if there was [also] an association between osteoporosis and increasing coronary calcium," said presenter Dr. Declan Sheppard.
Osteoporosis and coronary artery disease are major causes of morbidity and mortality for patients and are a great expense to health systems around the world, he said. Low bone mass density and coronary artery disease also share many risk factors.
Sheppard and his team from Portiuncula and Roscommon County Hospitals in Ireland examined 163 consecutive patients who underwent coronary artery calcium (CAC) screening as well as bone mineral density (BMD) scans. CAC was scored using both Agatston and Mass scoring techniques.
Increasing CAC was significantly associated with decreasing BMD. There was also a significant correlation between the Agatston score and the bone mass of the rib, and between the coronary artery mass score and the rib. A subset of dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry patients also showed an association between CAC mass score and the lumbar spine BMD.
"We have shown a statistically significant relationship between decreasing bone mass density [osteoporosis] and increasing coronary calcium scores," Sheppard told AuntMinnie.com. "There is an indication for screening patients with osteoporosis for possible coronary artery disease."
Another presentation in the same session (SSG12-07) will describe a method that enables screening for osteoporosis as part of a CT coronary calcium study -- without the need for additional radiation, Sheppard said.
