Vertebral fractures in women aged 50 years and older with clinical risk factors for fractures in primary care.

摘要

BACKGROUND: The identification of vertebral fractures (VFs) is important for decisions on fracture prevention. Vertebral fracture assessment (VFA) was shown to be a patient-friendly and valid method for detecting undiagnosed VFs in (Dutch) women. However, this has only been investigated in women seeking care at secondary or tertiary institutions. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence of previously undiagnosed VFs in women in Dutch primary care using VFA. STUDY DESIGN: A total of 566 Dutch women aged 50 years and older (mean age, 69 years; SD=8.4) with clinical risk factors (CRFs) for fractures volunteered for dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) measurement and VFA. VFs were defined semi-quantitatively using Genant's method. RESULTS: One CRF was present in each of 130 women, 274 had two, and 162 women had more than two CRFs. In 120 (21%) of the women, previously unknown osteoporosis (T-score