Are patterns of bone loss in anorexic and postmenopausal women similar? Preliminary results using high resolution peripheral computed tomography

abstract Article history:Received 19 November 2012Revised 4 September 2013Accepted 17 September 2013Available online 29 September 2013Edited by: Felicia CosmanKeywords:3D-pQCTMicroarchitecture of boneBone lossAnorexia nervosaOsteoporosisPostmenopausal women Thisstudy intended to compare bone densityand architecture in three groups of women:youngwomenwithan-orexia nervosa (AN), an age-matched control group of young women, and healthy late postmenopausal women.Three-dimensional peripheral quantitative high resolut ion computed-tomography (HR-pQCT) at the ultradistalradius, a technology providing measures of cortical and trabecular bone density and microarchitecture, wasperformed in the three cohorts. Thirty-six women with AN aged 18 –30 years (mean duration of AN: 5.8 years),83 healthy late postmenopausal women aged 70 –81 as well as 30 age-matched healthy young women wereassessed. The overall cortical and trabecular bone dens ity(D100),theabsolutethicknessofthecorticalbone(CTh), and the absolute number of trabecules per area (TbN) were significantly lower in AN patients comparedwith healthy young women. The absolute number of trabecules per area (TbN) in AN and postmenopausalwomen was similar, but significantly lower than in healthy young women.The comparison between AN patients and post-menopausal women is of interest because the latter reach bonepeak mass around the middle of the fertile age span whereas the former usually lose bone before reaching opti-malbone density and structure.Thisstudyshowsthat bonemineraldensity andbonecompactathickness inANare lower than those in controls but still higher than those in postmenopause. Bone compacta density in AN issimilar asin controls. However, bone inner structure in AN is degraded to a similar extent as inpostmenopause.This last finding is particularly troubling.© 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.