Postmenopausal osteoporosis - clinical, biological and histopathological aspects

Osteoporosis is one of the most common disorders in postmenopausal women, affecting the quality of life and increasing the risk for fractures in minor traumas. Changes in the bone microarchitecture causes static changes in the body and affects motility. In this study, we analyzed two groups of women, one with physiological menopause and one with surgically induced menopause. The diagnosis of osteoporosis was suspected based on the clinical symptoms and confirmed by assessing bone mineral density by the dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). Comparing some clinical and biological aspects there was noted that a much higher percentage of women with surgically induced menopause exhibited increases in body mass index, changes in serum lipids, cholesterol, triglycerides, blood glucose, serum calcium, magnesemia and osteocalcin. In contrast, no significant differences were observed in the histopathological aspects of bone tissue examined from these two groups. In all patients, there was identified a significant reduction in the number of osteocytes and osteoblasts, the expansion of haversian channels, reducing the number of trabecular bone in the cancellous bone with wide areola cavities often full of adipose tissue, non-homogenous demineralization of both the compact bone and the cancellous bone, atrophy and even absence of the endosteal, and the presence of multiple microfractures. Our study showed that early surgically induced menopause more intensely alters the lipid, carbohydrate and mineral metabolism, thus favoring the onset of osteoporosis.