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Abstract |
Relation of Parity and Homocysteine to Bone Mineral Density of Postmenopausal Women |
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Osteoporosis is a major problem in contemporary society. However, there is not enough data on multiparity and osteoporosis from developing and/or undeveloped countries on a large scale. Selection of participants in this study was aimed at the detection of bone status in healthy (normal bone mineral density) postmenopausal (n = 46, 55.3 ± 6.7 years) and osteoporotic postmenopausal women (n: 33) of similar age. Bone mineral density (BMD) was evaluated using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. At the DEXA evaluation, 33 women had osteoporotic (T score below -2.5) and 46 had normal BMD values. The number of pregnancies was found to range from 3 to 12 (with an overall mean of 6.7 ± 2.5), while 2.6 ± 1.9 (range, 1-7) were miscarriages in all of the 33 postmenopausal osteoporo- tic women. Serum homocysteine (t-Hcy) and urinary deoxypyridinoline (DPD) levels were significantly higher in osteoporotic postmenopausal women (11.96 ± 3.84 μmol/L, 15.4 ± 7.0 nM/mM cr) than in non-osteoporotic post- menopausal women (10.93 ± 3.6 μmol/L, 10.6 ± 9.1 nM/mM cr), p<0.05, p<0.01, respectively. Surprisingly, in postmenopausal osteoporotic women the homocysteine (t-Hcy) levels were positively associated with the number of deliveries (multiparity; 6.7 ± 2.5), and positively associated with the number of curettages (2.6 ± 1.9), r = 0.401, p <0.038 and r = 0.520, p<0.029, respectively. The mechanism linking serum t-Hcy to the number of pregnancies is unclear, and the relationship may only be by chance. In conclusion, the present study firstly suggests that the number of pregnancies has an effect on the t-Hcy levels. In addition, our study indicates that there is a significant negative correlation between the number of pregnancies and the lumbar spine BMD. |
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