Measuring Drug Therapy Effect on Osteoporotic Fracture Risk by Trabecular Bone Lacunarity: The LOTO Study

An MRI method providing one parameter (TBLβ: trabecular-bone-lacunarity-parameter-β) that is sensitive to trabecular bone architecture (TBA) changes with aging and osteoporosis is under study as a new tool in the early diagnosis of bone fragility fracture. A cross-sectional and prospective observational study (LOTO: Lacunarity Of Trabecular bone in Osteoporosis) on over-50s women, at risk for bone fragility fracture, was designed to validate the method. From the baseline data, we observed that in women with prevalent vertebral fractures (VF+), TBA was differently characterized by TBLβ when osteoporosis treatment is considered. Here we verify the potential of TBLβ as an index of osteoporosis treatment efficacy. Untreated (N = 156) and treated (N = 123) women were considered to assess differences in TBLβ related to osteoporosis treatment. Prevalent VFs were found in 31% of subjects, 63% of which were under osteoporosis medications. The results show that TBLβ discriminates between VF+ and VF- patients (p = 0.004). This result is mostly stressed in untreated subjects. Treatment, drug therapy in particular (89% Bisphosphonates), significantly counteracts the difference between VF+ and VF- within and between groups: TBLβ values in treated patients are comparable to untreated VF- and statistically higher than untreated VF+ (p = 0.014) ones. These results highlight the potential role of TBLβ as an index of treatment efficacy.