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. 1986 Nov;45(11):950–953. doi: 10.1136/ard.45.11.950

Osteoporosis in rheumatoid arthritis: safety of low dose corticosteroids.

P N Sambrook, J A Eisman, M G Yeates, N A Pocock, S Eberl, G D Champion
PMCID: PMC1002026  PMID: 3789829

Abstract

Fear of inducing generalised osteoporosis is one reason why corticosteroids are withheld in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). No studies, however, have directly measured bone density in such patients at clinically relevant sites. To assess this risk we measured bone mineral density in the lumbar spine and femoral neck by dual photon absorptiometry in 84 patients with RA, 44 of whom had been treated with low dose prednis(ol)one (mean dose +/- SE 8.0 +/- 0.5 mg/day; mean duration of treatment 89.6 +/- 12.0 months). There were significant reductions in bone mineral density in patients treated with corticosteroids (lumbar 9.6%, p less than 0.001; femoral 12.2%, p less than 0.001) and in those who had not received corticosteroids (lumbar 6.9%, p less than 0.01; femoral 8.9%, p less than 0.001), but the differences between the two groups were not significant. We conclude on the basis of these studies that low dose oral corticosteroids do not increase the risk of generalised osteoporosis in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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