Sarcopenia in women with vertebral fragility fractures

We performed a pilot study with the purpose to evaluate the prevalence of sarcopenia in osteoporotic women with vertebral fractures. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) was used to measure the whole and regional body composition. Appendicular lean mass (aLM) was calculated as the sum of lean mass in arms and legs. We calculated the skeletal muscle mass index (aLM/h(2)), and we measured bone mineral density and T scores by DXA scan at total-body and at femoral neck. Participants were divided according to the number of vertebral fractures (single or multiple fractures). A total of 67 women were included. Thirty-five women (52.23 %) had a vertebral fracture, of them 8 (22.85 %) were sarcopenic and 32 women (47.76 %) had multiple vertebral fractures, of them 14 (43.75 %) were sarcopenic. Our results suggest that sarcopenia is common among osteoporotic women increasing along with the number of vertebral fragility fractures.