Efficacy and Safety of Denosumab in Osteoporosis or Low Bone Mineral Density Postmenopausal Women

Denosumab and the Risk of Diabetes in Patients Treated for Osteoporosis

Importance

Denosumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody against receptor activator of nuclear factor κB ligand (RANKL), is a widely used antiresorptive medication for osteoporosis treatment. Recent preclinical studies indicate that inhibition of RANKL signaling improves insulin sensitivity, glucose tolerance, and β-cell proliferation, suggesting that denosumab may improve glucose homeostasis; however, whether denosumab reduces the risk of incident diabetes remains unclear.

Objective

To evaluate whether denosumab use is associated with a lower risk of developing diabetes in patients with osteoporosis.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This nationwide, propensity score-matched cohort study used administrative data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. Adult patients who received denosumab for osteoporosis therapy in Taiwan between 2012 and 2019 were included. To eliminate the inherent bias from confounding by indication, the patients were categorized into a treatment group (34 255 patients who initiated denosumab treatment and adhered to it) and a comparison group (34 255 patients who initiated denosumab treatment but discontinued it after the initial dose) according to the administration status of the second dose of denosumab. Propensity score matching was performed to balance patient characteristics and to control for confounders.

Exposure

Treatment with denosumab.

Main Outcomes and Measures

The primary outcome was incident diabetes requiring treatment with antidiabetic drugs. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) for incident diabetes. Data were analyzed from January 1 to November 30, 2023.

Results

After propensity score matching, 68 510 patients were included (mean [SD] age, 77.7 [9.8] years; 57 762 [84.3%] female). During a mean (SD) follow-up of 1.9 (1.6) years, 2016 patients developed diabetes in the treatment group and 3220 developed diabetes in the comparison group (incidence rate, 35.9 vs 43.6 per 1000 person-years). Compared with the comparison group, denosumab treatment was associated with a lower risk of incident diabetes (HR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.78-0.90). Several sensitivity analyses also demonstrated similar results of lower diabetes risk associated with denosumab treatment.

Conclusions and relevance

The results from this cohort study indicating that denosumab treatment was associated with lower risk of incident diabetes may help physicians choose an appropriate antiosteoporosis medication for patients with osteoporosis while also considering the risk of diabetes.

Biologic Antiresorptive: Denosumab

Background

Osteoporosis is an age-related common bone disorder characterized by low bone mineral density and increased fragility fracture risk. Various Antiresorptive medications are being used to target osteoclast mediated bone resorption to prevent bone loss and reduce fracture risk.

About Denosumab

Denosumab is a novel biological antiresorptive drug that belongs to the class of monoclonal antibodies. It binds to and inhibits the cytokine receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B ligand (RANKL), which is requisite for osteoclast differentiation, function and survival.

Effectiveness

Denosumab has been shown to be a potent and effective therapy for osteoporosis, with clinical trial data demonstrating significant improvement in bone mineral density (BMD) and reductions in fracture risk at various skeletal sites for more than 10 years of treatment.

Safety Profile

Denosumab has a favourable benefit/risk profile, with low rates of complications such as infection, atypical femoral fracture and osteonecrosis of the jawbone.

Challenges

However, denosumab treatment requires continuous administration, as discontinuation leads to rapid bone mineral loss and increased risk of multiple vertebral fractures due to rebound of bone turnover. Therefore, modification to another anti-osteoporosis drug therapy after denosumab discontinuation is required to maintain bone health.

Conclusion

Denosumab is a promising biological antiresorptive therapy for osteoporosis that offers high efficacy and safety, but also poses challenges for long-term management.

Effectiveness of nursing intervention in the operating room to prevent pressure ulcer and wound infection in patients undergoing intertrochanteric fracture: A meta-analysis

In this study, a meta-analysis was conducted to comprehensively assess the effectiveness of nursing intervention in the operating room to prevent pressure ulcers and wound infections in patients with intertrochanteric fractures. A computerised search of PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP Database of Chinese Technical Periodicals, and Wanfang databases was performed to identify randomised controlled studies (RCTs) on the effectiveness of nursing intervention in the operating room for patients undergoing intertrochanteric fractures from the time of construction of the respective databases to June 2023. Two researchers independently searched and screened the literature, extracted information and performed quality assessments of the included literature. The meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.4 software. Eighteen studies were finally included, including 1517 patients, with 757 in the intervention group and 760 in the control group. The results showed that nursing intervention in the operating room significantly reduced the incidence of postoperative pressure ulcers in patients with intertrochanteric femoral fractures compared to the control group (1.69% vs. 6.01%, odds ratio [OR]: 0.32, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.18-0.57, p < 0.001) and reduced the incidence of surgical site wound infection (1.00% vs. 6.15%, OR: 0.23, 95% CI: 0.11-0.50, p < 0.001). Current evidence suggests that nursing intervention in the operating room is superior to routine care in reducing the incidence of pressure ulcers and wound infections in patients with intertrochanteric fractures and that such interventions should be promoted for clinical use.

A Mini Review on Osteoporosis: From Biology to Pharmacological Management of Bone Loss

Osteoporosis refers to excessive bone loss as reflected by the deterioration of bone mass and microarchitecture, which compromises bone strength. It is a complex multifactorial endocrine disease. Its pathogenesis relies on the presence of several endogenous and exogenous risk factors, which skew the physiological bone remodelling to a more catabolic process that results in net bone loss. This review aims to provide an overview of osteoporosis from its biology, epidemiology and clinical aspects (detection and pharmacological management). The review will serve as an updated reference for readers to understand the basics of osteoporosis and take action to prevent and manage this disease.

Efficacy and safety of tranexamic acid for patients with intertrochanteric fractures treated with intramedullary fixation: A systematic review and meta-analysis of current evidence in randomized controlled trials

Background: Tranexamic acid (TXA) has been widely applied to reduce perioperative bleeding. Recently, several studies focused on the administration of TXA in the treatment for with intertrochanteric fracture patients treated with intramedullary fixation. However, the efficacy and safety of TXA in these studies remain controversial. Therefore, we performed this systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the efficacy and safety of TXA in intertrochanteric fracture patients treated with intramedullary fixation.

Methods: We systematically searched electronic databases, including Cochrane, PubMed, and EMBASE, up to 16 May 2022. The efficacy and safety of TXA was evaluated in four aspects, which were bleeding-related outcomes, non-bleeding-related outcomes, thromboembolic events, and other complications. The outcomes of these studies were extracted and analyzed by RevMan Manager 5.4.

Results: Finally, nine randomized controlled trials, involving nine hundred and seventy-two intertrochanteric fracture patients treated with TXA, were enrolled in this study. In the bleeding-related outcomes, TXA group was significantly lower than the control group in terms of total blood loss (MD = −219.42; 95% CI, −299.80 to −139.03; p &lt; 0.001), intraoperative blood loss (MD = −36.81; 95% CI, −54.21 to −19.41; p &lt; 0.001), hidden blood loss (MD = −189.23; 95% CI, −274.92 to −103.54; p &lt; 0.001), and transfusion rate (RR = 0.64; 95% CI, 0.49 to 0.85; p = 0.002). Moreover, the postoperative hemoglobin on day 3 of the TXA group was significantly higher than that of the control group (MD = 5.75; 95% CI, 1.26 to 10.23; p = 0.01). In the non-bleeding-related outcomes, the length of hospital stays was significantly shorter in the TXA group (MD = −0.67; 95% CI, −1.12 to −0.23; p = 0.003). In terms of thromboembolic events, there was no significant differences between the TXA group and control group in deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, myocardial infarction, and ischemic stroke. As for complications and mortality, there was no significant differences between the TXA group and control group in respiratory infection, renal failure, and postoperative mortality within 1 year.

Conclusion: TXA is an effective and safe drug for perioperative bleeding control in intertrochanteric fracture patients treated with intramedullary fixation. However, the long-term efficacy of TXA still needs to be investigated by large-scale multicenter randomized controlled trials.

Level of evidence: II, Systematic review and Meta-analysis.

Systematic Review Registration:https://inplasy.com/, identifier [INPLASY202280027]

Personalized Therapeutic Strategies in the Management of Osteoporosis in Patients with Autoantibody-Positive Rheumatoid Arthritis

Bone mineral density (BMD) reduction and fragility fractures still represent a major source of morbidity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, despite adequate control of the disease. An increasing number of clinical and experimental evidence supports the role of autoantibodies, especially anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs), in causing localized and generalised bone loss in ways that are both dependent on and independent of inflammation and disease activity. The human receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa B and its ligand—the so-called RANK-RANKL pathway—is known to play a key role in promoting osteoclasts’ activation and bone depletion, and RANKL levels were shown to be higher in ACPA-positive early untreated RA patients. Thus, ACPA-positivity can be considered a specific risk factor for systemic and periarticular bone loss. Through the inhibition of the RANK-RANKL system, denosumab is the only antiresorptive drug currently available that exhibits both a systemic anti-osteoporotic activity and a disease-modifying effect when combined with conventional synthetic or biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). Thus, the combination of DMARD and anti-RANKL therapy could be beneficial in the prevention of fragility fractures and structural damage in the subset of RA patients at risk of radiographic progression, as in the presence of ACPAs.