Bone densitometry in clinical practice: longitudinal measurements at three sites in postmenopausal women on five treatments.

We report sequential changes in bone mineral density (BMD) at the forearm, hip and spine in 340 consecutive postmenopausal women referred by 103 general practitioners and six specialists, and who were either untreated or being treated with calcium, estrogen, norethisterone or calcitriol for a median period of 25 months (range 11–52). The mean annual rate of change in BMD at the three sites was: 1.39% in 44 women on norethisterone; 0.94% in 107 women on estrogen (both p < 0.001); 0.24% (not significant) in 52 women on calcitriol; –0.53% in 92 women on calcium; and –1.06% in 45 women on no treatment (both p < 0.01). The mean annual rate of change at the three sites in the 295 treated women was 0.43%, which was significantly positive (p < 0.001) and was 1.49 percentage points more positive than in the untreated women (p < 0.001). The greatest mean difference between treated and untreated patients was seen at the forearm, where it was 2.16 percentage points (p < 0.001). This was significantly greater than the...