No association between the aluminium content of trabecular bone and bone density, mass or size of the proximal femur in elderly men and women.

BACKGROUND

Aluminium is considered a bone toxic metal since poisoning can lead to aluminium-induced bone disease in patients with chronic renal failure. Healthy subjects with normal renal function retain 4% of the aluminium consumed. They might thus also accumulate aluminium and eventually be at risk of long-term low-grade aluminium intoxication that can affect bone health.

METHODS

We therefore examined 62 patients with femoral neck fractures or osteoarthritis of the hip (age range 38-93), with the aim of examining whether aluminium in bone is associated with bone-mineral density (BMD), content (BMC) or width of the femoral neck measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). During operations bone biopsies were taken from the trabecular bone of the proximal femur. The samples were measured for their content of aluminium using a mass spectrometer.

RESULTS

No significant association between the aluminium content in bone and femoral neck BMD, BMC or width could be found after multivariate adjustment.

CONCLUSION

Our results indicate that the accumulated aluminium content in bone during life does not substantially influence the extent of osteoporosis.