Osteoporosis rates low in men with arthritis

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Compared with women, men with rheumatoid arthritis are considerably less likely to develop the brittle-bone disease osteoporosis, according to a new study.

While quite a bit is known about the occurrence of osteoporosis in women with rheumatoid arthritis, "data about male patients are limited," Dr. Joan M. Nolla and colleagues from L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, write in the Journal of Rheumatology.

The team therefore assessed the frequency of osteoporosis in 187 men with RA, most of whom were older than 50.

The subjects' bone density was lower than that in the general population. Based on World Health Organization criteria, formulated for postmenopausal women, the frequency of osteoporosis was 13 percent in the spine, 12 percent at the hip, and 21 percent in at least one other site.

The corresponding percentages for a previously assessed group of women with rheumatoid arthritis on low-dose steroids was 34 percent, 34 percent and 47 percent.

"We do not have a full explanation for the considerable difference in frequency of osteoporosis between male and female patients with rheumatoid arthritis," Nolla and colleagues say.

"It is likely that the effects of deleterious factors for bone are not the same in male versus female patients; moreover," they add, "it is possible that criteria for classification of osteoporosis should be different in both genders."

SOURCE: Journal of Rheumatology, August 2006.