Cambridge researcher aiming to improve treatment for women with osteoporosis

Published on 01 Feb 2007

Dr Ken Poole, a specialist registrar in rheumatology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, has been awarded a clinician scientist fellowship of £506,525 over five years by the Arthritis Research Campaign (arc) to carry out the work.

Current bone scanning techniques on older women called DXA scans sometimes fail to identify those who are likely to have a fracture, with fewer than 20 per cent of hip fracture patients receiving any medication to strengthen their bones such as calcium, Vitamin D, or drugs. This is despite national guidelines which recommend that women who have had a fragility fracture should be on treatment.

Dr Poole aims to develop new methods of assessing and preventing thinning of bone in the neck of the femur, using new sophisticated, high resolution scanning techniques called CT scans to find out if they work better in detecting osteoporotic fracture of the hip than scans currently used in clinical practice.

“There is an urgent need to develop new ways of improving hip strength and resistance to fracture, as hip fractures in older adults annually account for more than 85,000 hospital admissions in the UK,” explained Dr Poole.

As the population over 60 is expected to rise, the numbers of hip fractures is also expected to increase.

“The most devastating fractures that occur due to osteoporosis are those of the hip, because up to a third of sufferers die within a year and survivors face pain, reduced mobility and loss of independence,” explained Dr Poole.

“My research is all about finding better ways of detecting these patients who may go on to have a hip fracture (irrespective of their DXA scan) so that we can target them for treatment. CT scanning looks at the 3D architecture of the hip and finds things that can’t be picked up by DXA. I hope these measures can eventually tell us which of these patients have the highest risk for fracture if they fall onto their hips – and direct appropriate therapy.”

If CT scanning shows that the hip bones are very thin, Dr Poole will suggest that patients would be suitable for a new bone-building drug or another drug capable of forming new bone.