[Vitamin K2 (menatetrenone) and bone quality].

Vitamin K2 (menatetrenone) treatment was reported to significantly prevent new clinical fracture (chi2 = 10.935;p = 0.0273) in a 2-year group comparison study of patients with osteoporosis, although it only maintained the baseline bone mineral density. This result strongly suggested that another factor was involved in promoting bone strength apart from an increase in bone mineral density. With respect to the therapeutic effect of menatetrenone treatment on corticosteroid-induced osteoporosis over 2 years, the incidence of a new vertebral fracture was 13.3% in the menatetrenone treatment group versus 41% in the control group, indicating that this treatment could prevent fractures. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate independent risk factors for new vertebral fractures, and treatment with menatetrenone showed a preventive effect on fracture with an odds ratio of 0.03 and a risk rate of 0.003.