The Relation between Osteoporosis and Aortic Calcification

Abstract

1. Lumbar spine films in 823 subjects were examined for aortic calcification which was present in 28 per cent of the women and 18 per cent of the men. There was a highly significant correlation between it and reduced metacarpal cortical thickness (osteoporosis), which was present in 30 per cent of the women and 19 per cent of the men. 2. In 470 of these subjects, spinal density measurements were available. In this group also there was a highly significant relation between osteoporosis and aortic calcification. 3. When the cases were broken down into males and females, the relations between osteoporosis (by both criteria) and aortic calcification were significant in both sexes. 4. When the material was divided into decades, the only significant relation between osteoporosis and aortic calcification was found in men aged 70–79, using the hand “score” as the criteria of osteoporosis. 5. It is concluded that the apparent association between osteoporosis and aortic calcification is largely if not wholly accounted for by the increasing incidence of both conditions with age.