Clinical manifestations of osteoarthritis in osteoporotic and osteopenic postmenopausal women.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the frequency of clinical manifestations of osteoarthritis in women with low BMD.

METHODS: This prospective epidemiological study investigated the degree of osteoarthritic pain and functional disability in symptomatic joints of a randomly selected population of postmenopausal Greek women aged >45 years with osteoporosis or osteopenia. Degree of osteoarthritic impairment (none, mild, moderate or severe) was classified at the knee, hip, neck or hand using a site-specific internationally validated osteoarthritis questionnaire.

RESULTS: 3000 women were included with mean age of 66.7 years. Osteoporosis was more common than osteopenia. Mild osteoarthritic impairment was most prevalent. An inverse relationship between severity of osteoarthritic impairment and mean femoral neck T-score was observed, regardless of site. There was a significant difference in mean femoral neck T-score between patients with severe osteoarthritic impairment and those with no, mild, or moderate impairment. This was also observed when lumbar spine BMD results were pooled.

CONCLUSIONS: Most postmenopausal women with low BMD suffer from osteoarthritic impairment, with an inverse association between severity of osteoarthritic impairment and mean femoral neck T-score. Mean lumbar spine or femoral neck T-scores of patients with severe osteoarthritic impairment were significantly lower than those of patients with less impairment.