Can bone turnover markers correlate bone mass at the hip and spine according to menopausal period?

Changes in bone turnover with years since menopause (YSM) are responsible f or bone loss and play a major role in osteoporosis. Although single measure ments of the bone turnover marker appear unlikely to be clinically useful i n predicting bone mineral density, the usefulness of these measurements in relation to the YSM has not been well established. The establishment of thi s relationship was the aim of this study. To address this issue, we have me asured a battery of sensitive and specific markers of bone turnover in 272 women postmenopausal from -5 to 15 a, and the data was correlated with bone mineral density (BMD) at different skeletal sites measured utilizing dual- energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Bone formation was assessed by serum ost eocalcin (OC), and bone resorption by Pyr and D-pyr. The three markers and BMD were compared between the groups (YSM). Among the three markers, only P yr exhibited a significant difference between pre and postmenopausal groups . In the aspect of correlation between bone turnover marker and BMD accordi ng to the groups (YSM), we found negative strong correlations between the B MD of lumbar spine (L2-4) vs. Pyr (P=0.01, v=-0.75) in the premenopausal gr oup (-5 similar to0 YSM), and we found negative correlation between the BMD of L2-4 vs, osteocalcin (P=0.05, r=-0.2 and P=0.01, r=-0.44) in the postme nopause groups (0 similar to5 and 5 similar to 10 YSM). We concluded that P yr in women -5 similar to0 YSM and osteocalcin in women 0 similar to 10 YSM displayed negative correlation with BMD of L2-4.