NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Patients with scleroderma, also known as systemic sclerosis, have rates of osteoporosis that are similar to those seen in rheumatoid arthritis patients, according to Canadian researchers.
Scleroderma is a chronic disease of the connective tissue characterized by hardening of the skin. It may or may not be progressive. The disease can take several forms and there is also much variability among patients.
Symptoms range from mild to life-threatening. The seriousness of the disease will depend on the body parts affected, along with the extent to which they are affected and correctly treated.
To evaluate whether scleroderma is associated with osteoporosis, a chronic bone-thinning disease, senior investigator Dr. Janet E. Pope and colleagues at the University of Western Ontario, London studied data from 159 scleroderma patients, who were compared with 140 patients with non-inflammatory musculoskeletal diseases and 235 patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
The rate of osteoporosis in the scleroderma patients (19.4 percent) was similar to that in rheumatoid arthritis patients (16.7 percent), but significantly higher than in the musculoskeletal diseases group (12.2 percent), according to the report in the Journal of Rheumatology.
In addition, a chart review results showed that in the scleroderma group, adjusted scores at the lumbar spine and total hip region were similar to or even lower than in the rheumatoid arthritis group.
"Osteoporosis will need to be recognized in patients with scleroderma," Dr. Pope told Reuters Health, "as it is a potentially treatable problem that is more common in scleroderma than has been recognized in past."
"This finding," she added, "was not explained by treatment with steroids, which can lower bone mass."
There are an estimated 300,000 people in the United States who have scleroderma, about one third of whom have the systemic form of scleroderma.
Overall, female patients outnumber male patients about four to one, and the average age at diagnosis is in the 40s, with an average range of 25 to 55 years old.
SOURCE: Journal of Rheumatology June 20, 2008.
