Heel quantitative ultrasound parameters in subjects with the metabolic syndrome: the Camargo Cohort Study

To compare bone parameters measured by calcaneous quantitative ultrasonography (BUS) in subjects with and without metabolic syndrome (MetS). In addition, we wanted to examine the association of each of the individual components of the syndrome with BUS measurements, to study the relationship between calciotropic hormones or bone turnover markers with BUS parameters in subjects with or without MetS, and to explore the possibility that the relationship between prevalent vertebral and non-vertebral fractures and BUS is influenced by MetS status.

Cross-sectional study.

We investigated 1209 (421 men and 788 women) participants from the Camargo Cohort Study. Prevalence of MetS was 27% in men and 31% in women. Women, but not men, with MetS had higher age-adjusted BUS parameters compared with those without (p<0.05), the difference disappearing after adjustment for BMI. Out of the five single components of MetS, only waist perimeter was significantly associated with BUS (p<0.01), the association being restricted to women. In men and women with MetS (but not without) a positive significant association was observed between BUS and 25OHD levels. BUS parameters were associated with serum P1NP or CTX in normal women, but not in those with MetS. Prevalent vertebral and non-vertebral fractures and BUS parameters (BUA and SOS, respectively) are inversely associated, but this relationship, however, is not influenced by MetS status.

BUS parameters are higher in women with MetS, and this difference disappears after adjusting for BMI. MetS status did not influence the relationship between BUS parameters and vertebral or non-vertebral fractures.