More than 40% of Systemic Sclerosis Patients Have Osteoporosis and Osteopenia

Diane Marr, rheumatology fellow at Stanford Healthcare and Clinics, recently presented a study at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in which she and her team examine the risk of osteopenia and osteoporosis in systemic sclerosis patients.

Prior to this study, she says in this interview, the risk has not been entirely clear. "Although other inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and IBD have a clear association with low bone mineral density, this study aimed to look at clinical factors associated with scleroderma independent of the traditional risk factors associated with BMD.

Researchers ultimately reported that outside of traditional risk factors, researchers found that disease duration and the use of non

outside of translational factors the study found that disease duration and use of non glucocorticoid immunosuppressants were associated with a diagnosis of osteopenia and osteoporosis in this co-hort of scleroderma patients.

Learn more about this study in this interview, and here in this study summary.

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REFERENCE

ABSTRACT NUMBER: 0394 • ACR Convergence 2020. Nov. 6, 2020. "Prevalence of a Diagnosis of Osteopenia/Osteoporosis Amongst Patients with Systemic Sclerosis and Identification of Associated Clinical Factors"