Relationship between impaired forearm endothelial function and osteoporosis in Tunisian postmenopausal women: Serum lipids or others factors?

Abstract Aims Recent research suggests that bone loss and vascular endothelial dysfunction are functionally interwoven in postmenopausal women. The aim of our study was to assess the relationship between forearm endothelial function and bone mineral density in postmenopausal women. Methods We studied the endothelial function of resistance arteries of the forearm in 113 Tunisians postmenopausal women, 75 with normal bone mineral density (BMD) and 38 with osteoporosis. Skin blood flow (SBF) was measured by laser Doppler during three cumulative doses of acetylcholine by iontophoresis (endothelium dependent vasodilatation: EDV) and after local heating (endothelium independent vasodilatation: EIV). Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was used to measure BMD of the hip and lumbar spine (L1–L4). Results women with normal BMD had a higher maximal EDV (415,9 ± 410%) than those with osteoporosis (111 ± 135%) (P = .03), even after adjusting for a variety of confounding factors (age, body mass index, years since the start of menopause, weekly exercise and cardiovascular diseases). For the EIV, no difference was detected between the two groups. In addition, we found no difference in serum lipid, lipoprotein and apolipoprotein concentrations, between the two groups. In multivariate regression analysis, the EDV was correlated only with lumbar spine BMD (p = ,026). Conclusion our study supports the hypothesis that postmenopausal women with osteoporosis have a weak forearm endothelial function.