AGE, MENOPAUSE, BONE TURNOVER MARKERS AND LUMBAR BONE LOSS IN HEALTHYJAPANESE WOMEN

The change in lumbar vertebral bone mineral density (BMD) during a 2-y ear study period was examined in 167 healthy middle-aged and elderly J apanese women with reference to age, menopausal status and bone turnov er markers at baseline. The perimenopausal and postmenopausal groups o f the subjects showed a significant loss of BMD during the study perio d but the premenopausal women did not. The annual percent decrease of BMD (Delta BMD) in the perimenopausal women (- 2.40% in average) was s ignificantly greater than that in either of the premenopausal (- 0.01% ) or over-all postmenopausal women (- 0.85%). The subjects who had bee n postmenopausal for less than 10 years showed a significant bone loss . Delta BMD in the postmenopausal women became less marked as the post menopausal duration increased. The bone loss was accelerated for about 10 years after menopause. The pattern and magnitude of bone loss of J apanese women seemed to be similar to those of Caucasian women. The re gression equation for Delta BMD based on the bone turnover markers at baseline was shown to be significant in the postmenopausal women and t he serum level of bone-specific alkaline phosphatase isoenzyme had a s ignificant relation to Delta BMD. However, this equation accounted for only 17.3% of the total variance of Delta BMD and, hence, its validit y was not sufficiently high for the prediction of bone loss in clinica l settings.