According to this study:

* Patients with heart failure should be screened and treated for osteoporosis to prevent fracture.

Although the prevalence of osteoporosis in people with heart failure is undetermined, these two conditions share several risk factors: older age, female sex, type 2 diabetes, and smoking. Van Diepen and colleagues sought to determine fracture risk in people with heart failure, as compared with those with diagnoses other than heart failure. The study included people ages 65 years and older in Alberta, Canada, who received a diagnosis related to a cardiovascular condition at an ED visit between April 1998 and March 2001 and then were hospitalized for a fracture within a year of their ED visit.

Heart failure was diagnosed in 2,041 patients at their ED visit. This group was compared with a control group of 14,253 patients with a cardiovascular condition that wasn't heart failure. Of those with heart failure, 4.6% were hospitalized for a fracture within a year (1.3% for hip fracture), compared with 1% of those in the control group (0.1% for hip fracture). After adjusting for age, sex, medications, and comorbidities, patients with heart failure were four times more likely to be hospitalized for a fracture than were those in the control group.

The authors state that the study results support increased screening for and treatment of osteoporosis in patients with heart failure.-SDSJ