Abstract

INTRODUCTION: There is dearth of data on prevalent vertebral fractures in perimenopausal women in India and limited literature on the utility of FSH, AMH and estradiol in evaluating bone health them. The objective was to study the prevalence of vertebral fractures (VF) and to assess the utility of FSH, estradiol and AMH in predicting them in Indian perimenopausal women MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was a cross-sectional study. Perimenopausal women aged 40-49 years underwent assessment for prevalent vertebral fractures, bone mineral density (BMD) and trabecular bone score (TBS). Utility of serum FSH, estradiol and AMH in predicting prevalent vertebral fractures was also assessed.

RESULTS: A total of 300 perimenopausal women with mean (SD) age of 43.2 (2.8) years was recruited and 18% had moderate-severe VF. Mean (SD) serum AMH was lower in perimenopausal women with VF as compared to those without fractures [0.752 (0.594) vs 1.023 (0.704) P = 0.006]. AMH showed significant positive correlation with TBS (r = 0.3; P 

CONCLUSION: About one-fifth of the study subjects had prevalent vertebral fractures. AMH may be a menstrual cycle independent biomarker and may reflect bone loss in perimenopausal women. Further prospective studies are needed to validate these findings.