POSSIBLE PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF STEROID-INDUCED OSTEOPOROSIS

Patients with steroid-induced, juvenile and senile osteoporosis were studied using balance techniques. The changes in calcium and phosphorus balance associated with glucocorticoid therapy were corrected with vitamin D and bendrofluazide given in combination. No hypercalcaemia occurred in osteoporotic patients who continued to receive glucocorticoids. Calcium and phosphorus balance was also improved in the osteoporotic subjects not receiving steroids, but these patients became hypercalcaemic during treatment. It is suggested that vitamin D, bendrofluazide and steroids antagonize the actions of one another on the renal tubule, gut and bone and in this way prevent the increased calciuria which occurs with glucocorticoid therapy. Since the increased calciuria and negative calcium balance induced by glucocorticoids is considered to be the result of excessive bone resorption, an adequate dose of bendrofluazide and vitamin D in combination might prevent the development of, or even reverse, steroid-induced osteoporosis. © 1978 The Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine.