Is Monitoring BMD Necessary in Patients Who Take Bisphosphonates?

Alendronate treatment increases bone density in most patients, so routine monitoring of BMD is not warranted.

Guidelines vary in their recommendations for monitoring BMD after initiating bisphosphonate treatment. The U.S. National Osteoporosis Foundation and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists recommend monitoring BMD within 2 years of starting treatment, whereas the U.K. National Osteoporosis Guidelines Group, U.S. National Institutes of Health, and the Osteoporosis Society of Canada make no recommendations about routine monitoring. Investigators performed a secondary analysis of data from the Fracture Intervention Trial (JW Womens Health Feb 1 1999) using a mixed model to evaluate whether alendronate treatment had a fixed effect (i.e., similar for all patients) and, therefore, should not require monitoring, or random effects (i.…

Reviewing Author

Wendy S. Biggs, MD

Is Monitoring BMD Necessary in Patients Who Take Bisphosphonates?

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Reviewing Author