Is there relationship between brain atrophy and higher incidence of hip fracture in old age?--A preliminary study

The studies on the correlation between incidence of fall and brain atrophy have been going on to find out the cause of fall and its prevention. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between incidence of hip fracture and brain volume, measured by magnetic resonance image.

A total of 14 subjects with similar conditions (age, height, weight, and past history) were selected for this study. Fracture group (FG) was consisted of 5 subjects with intertrochanteric fracture. Control group (CG) had 9 subjects without intertrochanteric fracture. MRI-based brain volumetry was done in FG and CG with imaging software. Total brain (tBV), absolute cerebellar volumes (aCV) and relative cerebellar volumes (rCV) were compared between two groups. Student t-test was used to statistically analyze the results.

In FG, average tBV, aCV and rCV were 1034.676±38.80, 108.648±76.80 and 10.50±0.72 cm³, respectively. In CG, average tBV, aCV and rCV were found to be 1106.459±89.15, 114.899±98.06 and 10.39±0.53 cm³, respectively, having no statistically significant difference (p>0.05).

There was no significant difference between the fracture and control groups. Patients with neurologic disease such as cerebellar ataxia definitely have high incidence of fall that causes fractures and have brain changes as well. However, FG without neurologic disease did not have brain volume change. We consider that high risk of fall with hip fracture might decrease brain function which is not obvious to pickup on MRI.