Sarcopenia and fragility fractures

Objective: Sarcopenia is the age-associated loss of skeletal muscle mass and function. Sarcopenia was significantly associated with osteoporosis in a large sample of women following a fragility fracture of the hip. The primary aim of our study is to investigate the prevalence of sarcopenia in osteoporotic women with vertebral fragility fractures. Method: In this pilot study, we evaluated the prevalence of sarcopenia in involutional osteoporotic women (55 years or older) who already sustained a vertebral fracture, attending the outpatient clinic of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of the Second University of Naples, during a period of one year (June 2011- June 2012). Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DXA) was used to measure whole and regional body composition. Appendicular lean mass (aLM) was calculated as the sum of lean mass (LM) in arms and legs. We calculated the skeletal muscle mass (SM) index (aLM/height squared): sarcopenia was defined as a SM index Results: A total of 67 women were included. The mean age was 69.88 ± 7.28 years. Thirty-five women (52.23%) had a vertebral fracture, whom 8 (22.85%) were sarcopenic. Thirty-two women (47.76%) had multiple vertebral fractures, whom 14 (43.75) were sarcopenic. Implications: Our results suggest that sarcopenia is common among osteoporotic women increasing along with the number of vertebral fragility fractures.