Bone Mineral Density in Hip-Fracture Patients With Parkinson’s Disease: A Case-Control Study

Di Monaco M, Vallero F, Di Monaco R, Tappero R, Cavanna A. Bone mineral density in hip-fracture patients with Parkinson’s disease: a case-control study.

Objective

To investigate bone mineral density (BMD) levels in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) who sustained a hip fracture.

Design

Case-control study.

Setting

Rehabilitation hospital in Italy.

Participants

We investigated 831 out of 887 white patients consecutively admitted to a rehabilitation hospital because of an original hip fracture resulting from a fall. Twenty-eight (3.37%) of the 831 patients were affected by PD. Twenty-eight controls matched for sex, age, and hip-fracture type (cervical or trochanteric) were found among the 803 non-PD patients.

Interventions

Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures

BMD was assessed by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) at the unfractured femur. Five sites were investigated in each subject: total proximal femur, femoral neck, trochanter, intertrochanteric area, and Ward’s triangle. DXA scan was performed a mean ± standard deviation of 22.2±7.8 days after fracture occurrence in the 28 patients and 22.0±5.3 days after fracture occurrence in the 28 controls.

Results

BMD expressed as a T score did not differ significantly between the 28 PD patients and the 28 controls, whereas z score in the PD patients was significantly lower than 0±1 in the age- and sex-matched general population at 4 of the 5 sites of BMD assessment.

Conclusions

A sample of PD fallers who sustained a hip fracture had femoral BMD levels similar to those found in matched hip-fracture fallers who did not suffer from PD and significantly lower than those found in the matched reference population.