To prevent the osteoporosis playing in advance.

There are several possibilities for the prevention of primary, secondary and tertiary osteoporosis but till now they have not been promoted enough and bone fragility is thought about only after the onset of a fracture (tertiary prevention). By recent studies and discoveries it is becoming increasingly clear that there is a relationship between growth and development in early childhood and bone health in old age. Suboptimal bone development leads to a reduction in peak bone mass, and a higher risk of osteoporotic fracture later in life. Preventative strategies against osteoporosis can be aimed at either optimizing the peak bone mass obtained, or reducing the rate of bone loss. Optimization of peak bone mass may be more amenable to public health strategies. Technological advances and our knowledge of osteoporosis have increased in the last decade and so tertiary prevention should be considered a failure in the field of public health. If we want to make advances in the osteoporotic field, we must start in childhood, before the bone mass peak is reached and the gold-standard is starting with prevention as soon as possible, also during fetal development.

Pharmaco-economic issues in the treatment of severe osteoporosis.

INTRODUCTION: clinical guidelines recommend to identify and treat people at high risk of fracture. METHODS: we have carried out a simulation concerning pharmaco-economic issues in the treatment of severe osteoporosis and particularly those people with previous femoral fragility fractures, assuming that only 13.1% of hip fractured patients had started a proper antifracture therapy, as shown by the analysis of the Tuscany regional database. RESULTS: Annual costs sustained by the Italian healthcare system for treating hip fractured patients all over Italy have been estimated to range from 2 560 000 in year 2000 to 3 291 750 in year 2005, representing only 0,3% of the overall costs sustained because of hip fractures in Italy. CONCLUSIONS: Sixty percent of the pharmacological costs can be considered as ineffective from a therapeutic point of view because patients were assuming their drugs only for 6 months. There is a need for specific codification of osteoporotic fragility fractures at hospital admissions and for implementing regional strategies aimed to reduce hip re-fractures by increasing the number of patients on treatment and incrementing adherence to treatment.

Retrospective survey of clinical attention taken to osteoporosis in patients admitted in orthopaedic department for fragility fractures.

Considering that to international level it has put in evidence that often the diagnosis of osteoporosis is underestimated and that diagnostic and therapeutic attention of the same one are often neglected, the authors have assessed the degree of care provided by orthopaedic surgeons about the problem of osteoporosis, considering the medical files of orthopaedics department. Then corrective behaviour were proposed.

Osteoporosis and cardiovascular diseases' cosegregation: epidemiological features.

Life expectancy in Italy is estimated to rise to 77.9 and 84.4 years in next years. Increased life expectancy is associated with a greater frailty of elderly people and an increased prevalence of chronic and degenerative illnesses such as cardiovascular diseases and osteoporosis. The impact of osteoporotic hip fractures in Italy is very similar to that of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and there is a need for further epidemiological investigations concerning both the pathologies, as well as for a better understanding of possible mechanisms of their cosegregation. Actually, calcium metabolism is involved both in the development of osteoporosis and in the raise of cardiovascular risk. We have reviewed the most recent publications concerning epidemiological trends of both osteoporosis and acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and also the trials addressing cosegregation of these pathologies. According to the publications examined, in the Italian population (both ≥ 45 and > 65 years old), the number of hospitalizations following hip fracture and AMI are comparable. Both hip fractures and cardiovascular diseases represent in Italy a serious medical problem and a leading health cost driver, according to what has already been reported for many other Countries in the industrialized world, thus requiring a global clinical approach. Low calcium intake could represent one of the possible pathogenic paths underlining the association between hypertension and osteoporosis. Low calcium serum levels has been proved to enhance PTH and vitamin D3 production, which result in a remarkable lypogenesis performed by adypocites and switch on mechanisms leading to the raise of blood systolic pressure, the development of atherosclerotic plaques and cardiovascular events. Although many trials have suggested that bone mineral density may be included in the list of cardiovascular risk factors, more studies are needed in order to deeply investigate the causal relationships between calcium metabolism and cardiovascular diseases.