Trabecular Bone Score in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease

Introduction: We sought to determine whether trabecular bone score (TBS) either independently or adjusted for The Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX) could predict risk of major osteoporotic fractures (MOFs) in a large population-based sample of patients with all stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Methods: We used population-based administrative databases to identify patients above age 20 years who had dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan and serum creatinine measured within 1 year, during the years 2005 to 2010. Patients were excluded if they were on dialysis or had a functioning renal transplant. We stratified patients by estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). We collected femoral neck bone mineral density (BMD), lumbar spine TBS, incident major osteoporotic fractures (MOF) and hip fractures, and other clinical characteristics.

Results: Among 8289 patients, there were 6224 (75.1%) with eGFR ≥ 60 mL/min/1.73 m, 1624 (19.6%) with eGFR 30-60 mL/min/1.73 m, and 441 (5.3%) with eGFR < 30 mL/min/1.73 m. There were 593 patients (7.2%) with MOFs and 163 (2.0%) with hip fractures. Lower TBS score was associated with increased risk of MOF and hip fractures across all eGFR strata in unadjusted Cox proportional hazards models but after adjusting for FRAX with BMD, lower TBS was only statistically significant for MOF prediction for eGFR ≥ 60 mL/min/1.73 m.

Conclusion: Lower TBS scores were associated with lower eGFR and increased fracture risk in patients with eGFR ≥ 60 mL/min/1.73 m. However, the addition of TBS to the FRAX score with BMD did not significantly improve fracture risk prediction in patients with CKD.