Source: DGNews  |  Posted 8 years ago

By Mary Beth Nierengarten

MINNEAPOLIS, MN -- September 24, 2003 -- Alendronate does not seem to provide additional benefits to parathyroid hormone (PTH) in postmenopausal women being treated for osteoporosis, suggests a new study presented here September 19th at the 25th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

Dennis Black, PhD, lead investigator, University of California, San Francisco, said the study was conducted to determine whether alendronate, which reduces bone resorption, would have an additive or synergistic effect when combined with PTH, which stimulates bone formation, in the treatment of osteoporosis.

In addition to a lack of additive or synergistic effect, said Dr. Black, PTH alone was actually dramatically better in increasing bone mineral density (BMD) of the trabecular spine than the combined regimen.

The multicentre, randomized study enrolled 238 postmenopausal women with low hip or spine bone mass density (T-score of less than