Background/aims: We investigated the relationship between bone mineral density (BMD) of the femur neck or lumbar spine and metabolic syndrome or its parameters in postmenopausal Korean women.
Methods: This study included 399 postmenopausal women, for whom the BMD of their L2s-L4s and femur necks were examined in association with metabolic syndrome.
Results: Subjects with metabolic syndrome had a higher BMD of the femur neck than those without metabolic syndrome when adjusted for age (0.85 +/- 0.09 vs. 0.82 +/- 0.12 g/cm(2), p = 0.011), while there was no statistical difference at lumbar spine. When adjusted for age and BMI, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) was weakly and negatively correlated with BMD of the lumbar and femur neck (r = -0.107, p = 0.033; r = -0.111, p = 0.028 respectively).
Conclusion: Metabolic syndrome was partly associated with higher BMD in our postmenopausal Korean women. Our study also showed that HDL-C levels were negatively associated with BMD of the lumbar spine and femur neck which means that subjects with lower HDL-C levels could have higher BMD. The results of our retrospective study revealed that metabolic syndrome could be associated with higher BMD in our postmenopausal Korean women.
Copyright 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel.