[Strontium ranelate: a new therapeutic principle for postmenopausal osteoporosis]

Strontium ranelate (SR) is a new drug for osteoporosis that has a unique effect profile, being antiresorptive as well as anabolic. In postmenopausal women with spinal osteoporosis pretreated with calcium and vitamin D, SR reduced the risk of new vertebral fractures after 1 year by 49% and after 3 years by 41% (NNT = 9). The numbers of clinical fractures were in the same periods reduced by 52% and 38%, respectively. The number of patients with more than one new spinal fracture was reduced by 36%. Height reduction was less among the patients so treated, and there was a tendency towards less lumbar pain. Measured lumbar BMD increased 14.4% over three years, corresponding to an increase of 6.8% after adjustment for bone strontium content, compared with a decrease in the placebo group of 1.3%. The risk of new non-vertebral fractures was reduced by 16%. Among elderly women with a hip T-score <-3, SR decreased the risk of hip fractures by 36% over three years (NNT = 48). In patients with osteopenia and at least one clinical risk factor, SR reduced the risk of first vertebral fracture by 72% over three years (NNT = 12). In patients over 80 years of age, the risk of new vertebral fractures was reduced by 32% (NNT = 14). There were few side effects. SR is thus suitable for reducing the risk of vertebral and hip fractures from postmenopausal osteoporosis, especially among patients with upper abdominal dyspepsia and the elderly.