[Osteoporosis in patients under oral anticoagulant treatment]

Osteoporosis is thought to be one possible side-effect of oral anticoagulant therapy, especially after long-term treatment. Nevertheless, data concerning this problem only exist from earlier years. Therefore, we decided to look for the incidence of osteoporosis in patients under long-term oral anticoagulant treatment.

30 patients (15 female, 15 male) - age between 38 and 77 years (average age 65,1+/-11,2 years) were examined. Group A: 10 patients with a capture time between 0,5 - 5 years, Group B: 10 patients with a capture time between 6 - 11 years, Group C: 10 patients with a capture time more than 11 years. The control group consisted 30 healthy persons - age between 39 and 81 years (18 female, 12 male, average age 61,5 +/- 12 years).

In 21 out of 30 patients (9 female, 12 male) osteoporosis was found due to results of x-ray and bone-density-measurements. In 9 patients (6 female, 3 male) no osteoporosis was detected. No correlation between appearance of osteoporosis and duration of oral anticoagulant treatment was detected. Nevertheless, the number of patients presenting with osteoporosis in comparison with the control group was highly unexpected and astonishing.

While treating patients with oral anticoagulants the possibility of appearing osteoporosis should be kept in view. In those circumstances the therapy should be supported by calcium and vitamin D.