Analysis of efficacy of intravenous zolendronic acid therapy in osteoporosis with dexa scan

Introduction: Bisphosphonates are one of the commonly used drugs for the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis. Many of the old generation oral bisphosphonates have got lesser affinity to bone mineral matrix and low patient compliance. Newer generation intravenous zolendronic acid has got a better compliance due to once a year dose and it is more effective due to its more affinity towards bone mineral matrix. Hence this study was conducted to evaluate the results of intravenous zolendronic acid in osteoporotic individuals using Dual Energy X ray Absorptiometry. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in a tertiary centre between January 2012 to January 2016. The sample size was 36. The patient recruitment was done in a consecutive manner. Patients were diagnosed by DEXA scan and Lumbar spine BMD taken as representative and inj. zolendronic acid was given once a year, repeated every year, total for 3 years duration therapy. Student Paired t-test was used to find the statistical significance. Gender, fracture sustained during the study, complication, hypothyroidism and status of improved were expressed as frequency and the percentage. p < 0> Results and Analysis: The mean age of our study population was 67.7 yrs. 12 patients in our study had improvent in BMD (t - score) which was 40% of the whole study group. These 12 patients had an actual percentage rise in BMD by 11.62% on average, detected by DEXA Scan. All these patients were under the age bracket of 65 years. 18 patients did not have any improvement in or worsening of BMD and were above the age bracket of 65 yrs of age. This could be attributed to their medical co - morbid conditions and nutrional status. The incidence of another fracture was 8% among people who had a previous fracture. 10% of the study population had adverse effects like fever and myalgia. There were no other serious adverse effects.