Fracture risk assessment in postmenopausal women referred to an Italian center for osteoporosis: a single day experience in Messina.

Osteoporosis is a major cause of fragility fractures and these are responsible of large social burden; nevertheless, osteoporosis often remains an underdiagnosed disease. FRAX is a new and simple validate fracture risk assessment tool helping physicians to select patients at high risk of future fragility fractures. To promote early diagnosis of osteoporosis, we evaluated fracture risk by FRAX and performed phalangeal quantitative ultrasound (QUS) measurements in a population of postmenopausal women referring to our center during the World Osteoporosis Day on 20th October 2011. Eighty post-menopausal women (age 60.8±8.6) were screened and the risk of major osteoporotic and hip fractures over ten years was calculated by considering multiple clinical risk factors (CRFs). The median risk of major osteoporotic fracture (%) was 4.9 (3.5-8.6) in women younger than 55 years, 7.3 (5.4-11) in women aged between 55 and 65 years and 17.5 (11-27) in women older than 65 years; the median risk of hip fracture (%) was 0.6 (0.3-1.3), 1.5 (0.9-2.5) and 7.2 (3.1-14) respectively. QUS measurements, were lower in the older women and when multiple CRFs coexisted, and were found to correlate with fracture risk, especially with hip fracture risk (p<0.05). Within one month from the screening, 75% (44/59) of the women over 55 years came back and received a diagnosis of osteoporosis/osteopenia by dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA); a positive association between DXA and QUS measurements was observed (p<0.0001). Adequate treatment of these subjects could reduce fracture rates, improve the quality of life, and reduce the social costs of osteoporosis.

Losartan vs. amlodipine treatment in elderly oncologic hypertensive patients: a randomized clinical trial.

Elderly neoplastic patients frequently may show hypertension and hyperuricemia, before and after chemotherapeutic treatments. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of losartan which is an antihypertensive drug with uricosuric properties vs. amlodipine in hypertensive neoplastic elderly patients. This was an open-labeled, randomized, comparative trial. The study was performed as a 30-day study. Seventy patients with cancer were randomly assigned to receive losartan or amlodipine. Blood pressure (BP), blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels, creatinine, serum and urinary uric acid, creatinine and uric acid clearance were determined before and after chemotherapy. One day after chemotherapy in losartan group vs. amlodipine group we observed a significant difference in urinary uric acid (p<0.001) of 18 mg/24 h vs. 40 mg/24 h. Thirty days after chemotherapy we observed a significant difference in azotemia of 0.0 mg/dl vs. 3.8 mg/dl (p<0.001), serum uric acid of 0.05 mg/dl vs. 0.49 mg/dl (p<0.001), urinary uric acid (p<0.001) of 23 mg/24 h vs. 0.0 mg/24 h, GFR of 2 ml/min/1.73 m(2) vs. -8 ml/min/1.73 m(2) (p<0.05) and systolic BP (SBP) of 3.6 mmHg vs. 0.8 mmHg (p<0.05). The findings of the present study support the effective role of losartan compared to amlodipine in treating hypertension and hyperuricemia in elderly patients under chemotherapeutic treatment.