Background: Cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and sarcopenia are very common conditions. In recent years, interest in the association between bone, muscle and cardiovascular disease has grown. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between cardiac calcification, assessed using the Global Cardiac Calcium Score (GCCS), and bone mineral density (BMD), fragility fractures and sarcopenia.
Methods: In a cohort of 106 subjects (70.4±5.8 yrs) we measured lumbar BMD (BMD-LS), femoral BMD (femoral neck: BMD-FN, total femur: BMD-FT), and body composition using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. We also evaluated the presence of sarcopenia. All subjects underwent transthoracic color Doppler echocardiography to assess, by means of the GCCS, the presence of valvular calcification.
Results: After dividing the population, on the basis of their T-scores, into osteoporosis, osteopenia and normality, the degree of valve calcification as assessed using the GCCS was found to be significantly higher in the patients with osteoporosis (p<0.001). An inverse correlation emerged between the BMD and GCCS values which reached statistical significance at the level of the lumbar spine and femoral sub-regions in the female population (p<0.01). After dividing the population by the presence of fragility fractures, we observed that GCCS values were significantly higher in subjects with fractures versus non-fractured ones (p<0.05). Multiple regression models showed that BMD-LS and BMD-FT were independently associated with cardiac calcification. GCCS values were significantly associated with BMI and appendicular skeletal muscle mass in women (p<0.01 and p<0.05, respectively) and with handgrip strength in men (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Our data confirm the presence of a relationship between valvular calcification and decreased BMD values. This is also the first study which relates sarcopenia with valvular calcification.
KEY WORDS: Osteoporosis, cardiac calcification, sarcopenia, GCCS, bone mineral density, cardiovascular risk, echocardiography.
