Usefulness of QUS in follow-up

At present, there are few studies evaluating the effects of pharmacological treatments on QUS parameters. Some studies, by ourselves and others, reported that QUS parameters at the heel, and particularly the Stiffness, show similar patterns with respect to axial BMD in osteoporosis patients treated with antiresorptive drugs. For example, 4-year therapy with alendronate in osteoporotic women induced an increase in calcaneal Stiffness greater than the least significant change. QUS parameters at phalanxes seem to be less sensitive with respect to those at calcaneus in monitoring the effects of anticatabolic agents. We recently evaluated the effects of the anabolic agent teriparatide [hPTH(1-34)] on QUS parameters and we found that the parameters derived from graphic trace analysis at phalanxes (BTT and FWA) showed divergent patterns. In fact BTT showed a significant decrease whereas FWA showed the opposite pattern after only two months with teriparatide 20 microg daily. If the results are confirmed by further investigations QUS may represent an important non-invasive tool for a more comprehensive investigation of the skeletal effects of therapeutic interventions and particularly the anabolic agents.