Can bone turnover markers correlate bone mass at the hip and spine according to menopausal period?

Changes in bone turnover with years since menopause (YSM) are responsible for bone loss and play a major role in osteoporosis. Although single measurements of the bone turnover marker appear unlikely to be clinically useful in predicting bone mineral density, the usefulness of these measurements in relation to the YSM has not been well established. The establishment of this relationship was the aim of this study. To address this issue, we have measured a battery of sensitive and specific markers of bone turnover in 272 women postmenopausal from -5 to 15 a, and the data was correlated with bone mineral density (BMD) at different skeletal sites measured utilizing dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Bone formation was assessed by serum osteocalcin (OC), and bone resorption by Pyr and D-pyr. The three markers and BMD were compared between the groups (YSM). Among the three markers, only Pyr exhibited a significant difference between pre and postmenopausal groups. In the aspect of correlation between bone turnover marker and BMD according to the groups (YSM), we found negative strong correlations between the BMD of lumbar spine (L2-4) vs. Pyr (P=0.01, r=-0.75) in the premenopausal group (-5-0 YSM), and we found negative correlation between the BMD of L2-4 vs. osteocalcin (P=0.05, r=-0.2 and P=0.01, r=-0.44) in the postmenopause groups (0~5 and 5~10 YSM). We concluded that Pyr in women -5~0 YSM and osteocalcin in women 0~10 YSM displayed negative correlation with BMD of L2-4.