CLINICAL STUDIES Bone Mineral Density and Fractures in Turner Syndrome

PURPOSE: To determine whether women with Turner syn-drome who were treated with estrogen were more likely to have osteoporosis and fractures. METHODS: Areal bone density at the lumbar spine and fem-oral neck was measured in 40 adult women with Turner syn-drome and 43 age-matched healthy women using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Histories of estrogen treatment and frac-tures were obtained by structured personal interviews. RESULTS: Mean ( SD) areal bone density was significantly lower at the lumbar spine (0.87 0.11 g/cm2 vs. 0.98 0.10 g/cm2, P0.001) and femoral neck (0.68 0.07 g / cm2 vs. 0.83 0.08 g/cm2, P0.001) in women with Turner syndrome than in controls. The diagnostic criterion for osteoporosis (T-score 2.5) was met by 8 women with Turner syndrome (20%) with scores at the lumbar spine and by 3 (8%) with scores at the femoral neck. All women diagnosed with osteoporosis were less than 150 cm in height. Areal bone density correlated signifi