Breast arterial calcification and hypertension associated with vertebral fracture

Aim:  Arterial calcification and osteoporosis commonly accompany one another in postmenopausal women. Hypertension is a known contributing factor to arterial calcification. Thus, we aimed to investigate any associations between hypertension, arterial calcification and vertebral fractures in a cross-sectional study in Japanese postmenopausal women. Methods:  The medical histories of 421 postmenopausal Japanese women diagnosed with hypertension, diabetes mellitus or hyperlipidemia were investigated. Bodyweight, body height and ultradistal bone mineral density (BMD) were measured. The prevalent vertebral fractures were diagnosed by a semiquantitative method, and the number of breast arterial calcifications (BAC) was investigated by mammography screening. Results:  Patients with vertebral fractures were of a significantly higher age, lower height, lower ultradistal BMD and had a higher number of BAC compared with those without vertebral fractures. Furthermore, a significantly higher prevalence of hypertension was observed in the patients with vertebral fractures as compared with those without. A multivariate stepwise regression analysis using these variables for vertebral fractures showed that the significant odds ratios (OR) of age (OR 1.76, 95% CI 1.11–2.77, P = 0.016), the prevalence of BAC (OR 2.52, 95% CI 1.62–3.93, P < 0.001) and the presence of hypertension (OR 1.76, 95% CI 1.11–2.80, P = 0.017) were found as significant independent risk factors for vertebral fractures. Conclusion:  This is the first report of the relevance of BAC or hypertension to vertebral fractures in Japanese women. The results suggest that hypertension, BAC and osteoporotic fractures share a common metabolic pathway in their pathogenesis. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2012; 12: 330–335.