Effects of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation on recipient bone mineral density: A prospective study

Allogeneic bone marrow transplant (BMT) recipients have many known risk fac tors for developing decreased bone mineral density (BMD) after transplantat ion. We performed a prospective sequential evaluation of BMD in the lumbar spine and nondominant hip using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) in a cohort of 47 adult patients (median age, 43 years) who were undergoing ra diation-based BMT for hematologic malignancies. Baseline DEXA studies were performed before BMT and repeated at 3 to 4 months, 6 to 8 months, and 12 t o 14 months after BMT. The majority of patients (60%) had been minimally tr eated with combination cytotoxic chemotherapy, having received no more than 1 treatment regimen before BMT. Graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis cons isted of cyclosporine in combination with either methotrexate or prednisone , or both. Mean lumbar spine and hip BMD were normal before BMT (spine: 1.0 1 g/cm(2), z score = 96%; hip: 0.86 g/cm(2), z score = 100%) and gradually decreased (spine: 0.98 g/cm(2), z score = 94%; hip: 0.76 g/cm(2), z score = 91%) at 12 to 14 months. These declines were statistically significant (P < .006 and < .002 for lumbar spine; P < .001 and < .001 for hip). In additi on, the sharpest decline occurred during the first 6 months after BMT and w as more marked in the hip than the lumbar spine. These data suggest that BM T adversely affects BMD in this patient population.