Intervention Thresholds for Treatment in Patients with Glucocorticoid-Induced Osteoporosis: Systematic Review of Guidelines

Background: In this study, we aimed to evaluate and compare the treatment indication for patients with glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (GIOP) in various clinical practice guidelines.

Methods: We searched for potentially relevant studies conducted from January 2000 to March 2020 using online databases, including PubMed, Ovid-EMBASE, Guidelines International Network, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, KoreaMed, KMbase, and KoMGI. We reviewed and analyzed the guidelines that included recommendations on GIOP and fulfilled the inclusion criteria.

Results: A total of 94 articles were selected based on review of the title and abstract; 14 guidelines were assessed upon reviewing the full text. The bone mineral density score for therapeutic intervention of GIOP in postmenopausal women was presented in 7 guidelines, among which 3 guidelines set a T-score of -2.5 or lower and the other 4 guidelines proposed a less stringent cut-off point of -1.5 or lower. Among the 10 guidelines published since 2012 after the emergence of the fracture risk assessment tool (FRAX), 6 guidelines included FRAX in their criteria for defining intervention thresholds. However, they were further divided into fixed-probability (n=3) and age-dependent (n=3) thresholds based on the country.

Conclusions: Recently developed guidelines use FRAX as the criterion for establishing the treatment of patients with GIOP. However, these intervention thresholds need to be adapted for each country.