Heart failure quadruples risk of fractures
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People newly diagnosed with heart failure have a four-fold higher risk of breaking a bone than people with other types of heart disease, according to a Canadian study.
The risk of hip fractures is increased even more, the investigators report in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation.
Dr. Justin A. Ezekowitz and associates at the University of Alberta in Edmonton identified 2041 patients with a new diagnosis of heart failure and 14,253 patients with other heart-related diagnoses such as a heart attack, erratic heart beat, or chest pain.
In the first year after they were first diagnosed, 4.6 percent of patients with heart failure and 1.0 percent of control patients sustained a fracture treated in-hospital. Corresponding rates for hip fracture were 1.3 percent and 0.1 percent.
Overall, heart failure increased the likelihood of any fracture 4-fold while the chances of breaking a hip were 6.3 time higher.
The investigators emphasize that “patients with heart failure are readily identifiable and need to have better attention paid to bone mass and amelioration of fracture risk.”
They note that only “a handful” of patients in their study were on treatments recommended by guidelines to prevent fracture.
SOURCE: Circulation, online October 20, in print November 4, 2008.
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