Effect of Testosterone Replacement on Trabecular Architecture in Hypogonadal Men
- 1 October 2005
- journal article
- clinical trial
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Journal of Bone and Mineral Research
- Vol. 20 (10), 1785-1791
- https://doi.org/10.1359/jbmr.050606
Abstract
We evaluated the effect of testosterone treatment on trabecular architecture by microMRI in 10 untreated severely hypogonadal men. After 2 years, microMRI parameters of trabecular connectivity improved significantly, suggesting the possibility that testosterone improves trabecular architecture. Osteoporosis, characterized by low BMD and diminished bone quality, is a significant public health problem in men. Hypogonadal men have decreased BMD and deteriorated trabecular architecture compared with eugonadal men, and testosterone treatment improves their BMD. We tested the hypothesis that testosterone replacement in hypogonadal men would also improve their trabecular architecture. We selected 10 untreated severely hypogonadal men and treated them with a testosterone gel for 24 months to maintain their serum testosterone concentrations within the normal range. Each subject was assessed before and after 6, 12, and 24 months of testosterone treatment by magnetic resonance microimaging (microMRI) of the distal tibia and by DXA of the spine and hip. The microMRI parameters reflect the integrity of the trabecular network and include the ratio of all surface voxels (representing plates) to curve voxels (representing rods) and the topological erosion index, a ratio of topological parameters expected to increase on trabecular deterioration to those expected to decrease. The higher the surface-to-curve ratio and the lower the topological erosion index, the more intact the trabecular network. Serum testosterone concentrations increased to midnormal after 3 months of treatment and remained normal thereafter. After 24 months of testosterone treatment, BMD of the spine increased 7.4% (p<0.001), and of the total hip increased 3.8% (p=0.008). Architectural parameters assessed by microMRI also changed: the surface-to-curve ratio increased 11% (p=0.004) and the topological erosion index decreased 7.5% (p=0.004). These results suggest the possibility that testosterone replacement of hypogonadal men improves trabecular architecture.Keywords
This publication has 22 references indexed in Scilit:
- Measurement of Trabecular Bone Thickness in the Limited Resolution Regime of In Vivo MRI by Fuzzy Distance TransformIEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 2004
- Digital Topological Analysis of In Vivo Magnetic Resonance Microimages of Trabecular Bone Reveals Structural Implications of OsteoporosisJournal of Bone and Mineral Research, 2001
- Topological analysis of trabecular bone MR imagesIEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 2000
- Direct Three-Dimensional Morphometric Analysis of Human Cancellous Bone: Microstructural Data from Spine, Femur, Iliac Crest, and CalcaneusJournal of Bone and Mineral Research, 1999
- Risk Factors for Hip Fracture in White Men: The NHANES I Epidemiologic Follow-up StudyJournal of Bone and Mineral Research, 1998
- Probability‐based structural parameters from three‐dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance images as predictors of trabecular bone strengthMedical Physics, 1997
- Correlation of Trabecular Bone Structure with Age, Bone Mineral Density, and Osteoporotic Status: In Vivo Studies in the Distal Radius Using High Resolution Magnetic Resonance ImagingJournal of Bone and Mineral Research, 1997
- The prevalence of vertebral deformity in European men and women: The european vertebral osteoporosis studyJournal of Bone and Mineral Research, 1996
- Relationships between surface, volume, and thickness of iliac trabecular bone in aging and in osteoporosis. Implications for the microanatomic and cellular mechanisms of bone loss.JCI Insight, 1983