Osteoporosis and Osteoporotic Fractures in Postmenopausal Women with Type 2 Diabetes Compared with Non-Diabetic Controls

Objective: correlation of osteoporosis (op) with type 2diabetes mellitus (dm) is not as clear as type 1 dm. the purpose of this study was to compare the frequency of op and osteoporotic fractures in post- menopausal women with and without type 2 dm in sari, iran. materials and methods: eighty post-menopausal women with type 2 dm and 80 non-diabetic controls enrolled in this study. bone mineral density was determined with dual energy x-ray absoptiometry of l2-l4 in spine and femoral neck. vertebral fracture was reported by a radiologist on thoraco-lumbar x ray. hip and wrist fractures were determined by patients self-report and ascertained by radiographs. t test, x2 and fisher's exact tests were used for data analysis.results: the mean age of diabetic women with and without osteoporosis was 69±2.7 and 69.3±5 years, respectively (p=0.01). diabetes duration, hba1c and bmi were not statistically different between two groups. diabetic complications and anti-diabetic agents, or age and duration of diabetes were not different in diabetic patients with op or osteoporotic fracture.the mean of t-score in lumbar spine was -1.65±1.3 in diabetics and -2.11±1.3 in controls (p=0.03). t-score in femoral neck was not significantly different. in diabetic patients, the prevalence of osteoporosis was 27.5% at lumbar spine and 17.5% at femoral neck and in controls were 46.3% and 27.5%, respectively (p=0.04 and 0.1). fractures were less common in diabetics (18.8% vs. 32.5%, p=0.04).conclusion: this study showed that osteoporosis and osteoporotic fractures is less common in post-menopausal diabetic women compared to non-diabetic subjects.