Analysis and Treatment of Osteoporosis Following Paralysis Consequent to Stroke or Spinal Cord Injury

We measured the bone mineral density (BMD) in stroke and spinal cord injury (SCI) patients at our outpatient clinic to investigate the effect of paralysis on the progression of osteoporosis. Thirty-six stroke patients and 18 SCI patients (39 men, 15 women; mean age: 55 years) were enrolled. The BMD of the femoral neck was firstly measured at the time of 45 months after the onset on an average and measured again average 14.1 (10-19) months later using DEXA. There were no significant differences in the demography, gender, age, ambulation status, weight, height, diagnosis, and disease period between the etidronate-administered and non-etidronate-administered groups. The change of BMD significantly correlated with SCI patients (t=-2.976, p=0.0037), disease period (t=2.107, p=0.0377), and etidronate administration (t=2.017, p=0.0466) as demonstrated by multiple regression analysis (r2=0.276, p=0.0002). In conclusion, the BMD decrease positively correlated with SCI, but negatively correlated to etidronate-administration and disease period.