The Positive Association between Peripheral Blood Cell Counts and Bone Mineral Density in Postmenopausal Women.
10.3349/ymj.2011.52.5.739
- Author:
Hack Lyoung KIM
1
;
Hwa Young CHO
;
In Young PARK
;
Jin Man CHOI
;
Min KIM
;
Ho Jin JANG
;
Se Min HWANG
Author Information
1. Department of Internal Medicine, Armed Forces Seoul Hospital, Seoul, Korea. khl2876@gmail.com
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Association;
blood cells;
bone density;
postmenopause
- MeSH:
Aged;
*Blood Cell Count;
*Bone Density;
Female;
Hematopoiesis;
Humans;
Linear Models;
Middle Aged;
Osteogenesis;
Postmenopause/*blood/*metabolism;
Republic of Korea
- From:Yonsei Medical Journal
2011;52(5):739-745
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
PURPOSE: Accumulating evidence has shown a close connection between hematopoiesis and bone formation. Our aim was to evaluate the association between peripheral blood cell counts and bone mineral density (BMD) in a sample of postmenopausal women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: three hundreds thirty eight healthy postmenopausal women who underwent BMD measurement during their health check-up were investigated. BMD was measured by dual energy X-ray asorptiometry at L1-L4 spine, femoral neck and total proximal femur. BMD was expressed as a T-score: among T-scores obtained from three different sites (L1-L4 spine, femoral neck and total proximal femur), the lowest T-score was considered to be the subject's T-score. RESULTS: The prevalence of osteopenia and osteoporosis diagnosed by T-score in the study participants were 49.4% (167/338) and 5.0% (17/338), respectively. Peripheral blood white blood cell (WBC), red blood cell (RBC) and platelet counts had significant positive correlations with T-scores (p<0.001) upon simple linear regression analysis. A multiple linear regression analysis, after controlling of confounders including age, body weight, systolic blood pressure, alkaline phosphatase and creatinine, showed that WBC (beta=0.127; standard error=0.043; p=0.014), RBC (beta=0.192; standard error=0.139; p<0.001) and platelet (beta=0.097; standard error=0.001; p=0.050) counts still had significant positive association with T-scores. CONCLUSION: The study results showed a positive relationship between blood cell counts and bone mineral density in postmenopausal women, supporting the idea of a close connection between hematopoiesis and bone formation. The study results also suggest that blood cell counts could be a putative marker for estimating BMD in postmenopausal women.
