ABSTRACT
Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often develop osteoporosis. Many hormones regulate bone metabolism and body composition, and some of them are affected in COPD patients vs controls. In 46 COPD patients, we measured hip neck, total hip, lumbar spine, and whole-body T-score with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, parameters of body composition (body mass index [BMI], fat mass index [FMI], and fat-free mass index [FFMI]), and adiponectin, leptin, parathormone, osteocalcin, calcitonin, and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) serum levels and correlated them with COPD stage. Our results suggest that total hip bone mineral density (BMD) is affected by FFMI and COPD stage; lumbar spine BMD is affected by FMI and COPD stage; and whole-body BMD is affected by BMI, COPD stage, and leptin. Adiponectin, parathormone, osteocalcin, calcitonin, and IGF-I levels were not significantly correlated to BMD at any of the measured sites. Our findings are in agreement with the current literature in that a decline in lung function is correlated to a decline in BMD.