Description
Biochemical markers may capture the imbalance between bone formation and resorption influencing osteoporosis. They may allow quantitative evaluation of rates of bone loss, and thereby identify persons at risk for osteoporosis. Determinants of marker levels may also provide insights into factors influencing bone turnover. The overall objectives of this work were to investigate factors influencing selected bone turnover marker levels, and the associations of markers with DXA in men, using a classic twin, cross-sectional, prospective and retrospective cohort study design. The classic twin study design was used to estimate the role of total heredity (genes and childhood elements), exercise (leisure time, work-related physical activities, and sports), smoking, calcium intake, weight and other health related factors in determining bone marker levels. Degenerative features based on MRI measurements at the spine were assessed in relation to DXA and bone markers to investigate whether degenerative findings influence the correlation of DXA with bone markers. The samples for the studies described here came from the TwinSpine Study, a research project within Finnish Twin Study Cohort. Postdoctoral Fellow, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute at University of Toronto, 2006 – 2008; Alberta CIHR Training Program in Bone and Joint Health 2003 – 2006; Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Science University of Alberta, Canada 2002 – 2006; M.D. General Medicine, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest Romania E.U. 1994-2000.
