CHANGES IN CALCANEAN BONE-MINERAL OCCURRING SPONTANEOUSLY AND DURING HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY IN EARLY POSTMENOPAUSAL WOMEN

The spontaneous calcanean bone loss occurring in healthy early postmenopausal women and the effect of two hormone replacement therapies (HRT's) were investigated in a longitudinal study. There was no difference between the right and left calcanean BMC or BMD (p>0.15). The spontaneous bone loss was similar at all the skeletal sites measured, with a mean spontaneous loss in calcanean BMD of 1.6% over one year. Both HRT's significantly (p<0.01) prevented the bone loss from all skeletal sites irrespective of the weight-bearing or content of trabecular bone, and (for the weight-bearing bones) there was even a gain in calcanean BMC and BMD and spinal BMD (p<0.01). Bone mineral of the calcaneus and the spine correlated equally to body weight (r approximately 0.4, p<0.001), whereas bone mineral in the forearm was not correlated to body weight. The correlations between the changes in bone mineral at the sites measured were all significant (r approximately 0.2-0.4).