Can bone loss be reversed by antithyroid drug therapy in premenopausal women with Graves' disease?

Nutrition & Metabolism

Table 4 Bone status (bone mineral density, BMD) of premenopausal female patients with Graves' disease compared to both healthy controls and patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis on stable levothyroxine replacement.

	Controls	Graves' disease Months after diagnosis			Hashimoto's thyroiditis
Study points (months)		Baseline	18 ± 3	36 ± 3
Number	19	32			18
whole body BMD
Z-score	0.3	-0.2^#	-0.1**	0.1**	0.2^NS
	(-0.1 - 0.7)	(-0.5 - 0.1)	(-0.7 - 0.5)	(-0.5-0.6)	(-0.2 - 0.5)
T-score	0.1	-0.5^NS	-0.1**	-0.3**	-0.1 ^NS
	(-0.4 - 0.5)	((-0.9) - (-0.1))	(-0.7 - 0.5)	(-0.9 - 0.3)	(-0.4 - 0.3)
Lumbar spine BMD
Z-score	0.6	-0.1 ^NS	0.5**	0.6**	0.3 ^NS
	(0.1-1.2)	(-0.6 - 0.6)	(-0.3 - 1.2)	(-0.4 - 1.6)	(-0.2 - 0.8)
T-score	0.1	-0.7 ^NS	0.1**	-0.2**	-0.4 ^NS
	(-0.5 - 0.8)	((-1.4) - (-0.1))	(-0.8 - 0.9)	(-1.3 - 0.9)	(-0.9 - 0.1)
Femoral neck BMD
	0.91	0.83 ^NS	0.91*	0.84*	0.86 ^NS
	(0.84-0.98)	(0.77-0.90)	(0.8-1.0)	(0.75-0.94)	(0.82-0.90)
Z-score	0.5	-0.2^#	0.3**	0.1**	0.1 ^NS
	(0.04-0.95)	(-0.5 - 0.3)	(-0.3 - 0.9)	(-0.5 - 0.6)	(-0.4 - 0.5)
		-
T-score	-0.1	-0.6 ^NS	0.1**	-0.6*	-0.5 ^NS
	(-0.6 - 0.5)	((-1.1) - (-0.1)) -	(-0.6 - 0.7)	(-1.3 - 0.2)	((-0.8) - (-0.2))

Z-scores and T-scores are expressed as (mean (CI 95%)) and significance is marked as * = p < 0.05, ** = <0.005 when compared to baseline and marked differently as ^# = p < 0.05, ^## = p < 0.005 when normal controls are compared to baseline data for patients with Graves' diseases or patients with Hashimoto's disease. NS = non-significant.

ISSN: 1743-7075