• Home
  • MyECTS
  • Become a member
  • Contact us

Ectsoc

Ecstoc.org

MENUMENU
  • About
    • Mission & Vision
    • Governance & Transparency
    • Board of Directors
    • Annual General Meeting
    • Committees and Action Groups
      • Executive Committee
      • Communications Committee
      • Community Engagement Committee
      • ECTS Academy
      • Education Committee
      • Clinical Science Committee
      • Research Committee
      • Scientific Programme Committee 2025
    • ECTS Team
    • Membership
      • Individual Membership
      • Corporate Supporters
      • Join us
      • Affiliated Societies
  • ECTS 2025
  • Events
    • Upcoming Congresses
    • Past Congress
    • ECTS Academy Charity Event
    • ICCBH
    • Events
  • Grants & Awards
  • Education
    • PhD Training Course
    • Clinical Training Course in Metabolic Bone Diseases
    • Rare Bone Diseases Webinars
    • Education Resource Center
    • Bone Muscle & Beyond Webinars
    • ECTS-Mellanby Training Course
    • Calendar ECTS Educational Events
  • ECTS Academy
    • About the ECTS Academy
    • ECTS Academy – Members
    • Call for Applications - Basic Scientists
    • Call for Applications - Clinicians
    • ECTS Academy Activities
      • NI Conference Program
      • ECTS Academy Webinar Series
      • ECTS Academy Mentoring Options
      • ECTS Academy Charity Run
    • Visit the ECTS Academy website
  • News
    • ECTS Newsletter
    • News
    • Press Release
    • Image Library
    • Video Library
    • Job Advertisements
You are here: Home / New investigators / Newsletter / News from the world: The use of D3-Creatine Dilution for muscle mass assessment and its relationship with fracture risk in men. By Cristiana Cipriani

News from the world: The use of D3-Creatine Dilution for muscle mass assessment and its relationship with fracture risk in men. By Cristiana Cipriani

Muscle mass and strength are key determinats of bone health. Falls and fragility fractures are associated with reduction in muscle mass with consequent impairment in physical function.

The deuterated creatine (D3Cr) dilution is a novel and interesting methodology that estimates total body creatinine for assessing the overall muscle mass. The D3-creatine is a stable isotope-labeled creatine that is ingested by patient. The D3-Cr and creatine are measured 3-6 days later on fasting morning urine samples by the HPLC/MS methodology. The use of an algorithm allows to calculate the total body pool of creatine that is considered as the creatine absorbed and diluted in the skeletal muscle and therefore as a reliable measure of muscle mass.

In a recent paper by Cawthon et al., the D3Cr dilution methodology is employed to assess muscle mass and explore its relationship with incident fragility fractures in a cohort of 1,363 older men from the MrOs study in a mean follow-up time of roughly 4 years and a half. Interestingly, fractured men had lower muscle mass as assessed by the D3Cr dilution methodology, and the lower was the D3Cr muscle mass quartile, the higher was the fracture incidence. Authors suggest that the D3Cr muscle mass may be useful to implement the algorithm currently employed in the fracture risk calculation and to eventually better identify higher risk patients. Their conclusion is driven also by the observation of a 1.8-fold and 1.4-fold higher risk of hip and major osteoporotic fractures, respectively, for any SD decrease in D3Cr muscle mass.

The interesting results of this study draw attention on several aspects of the complex relationship between bone and muscle. First, they suggest that there is an actual direct influence of muscle mass on skeletal fragility. Indeed, muscle function and physical performance did not completely mediated the association between D3Cr muscle mass and incident fractures in the study. Mechanisms associated with the interesting cross talk between bone and skeletal muscle, involving direct (eg myokines) and indirect effects, are not completely known. Future clinical research needs to focus on this topic and on the assessment of muscle mass and its influence on the main determinants of skeletal fragility, including bone mass, quality and strength.

Secondly, as the authors pointed out, further data from clinical studies will clarify whether or not the D3Cr muscle mass assessment has the potential of being included in the clinical diagnosis of sarcopenia with the aim of a more comprehensive assessment of this disorder.

Finally, the employment of this methodology in other classes of patients, as those with secondary osteoporosis, or in premenopausal/juvenile osteoporosis, will be interesting in the attempt of better identifying those at higher fracture risk and guide the therapeutic approach.

READ THE ARTICLE

Join ECTS or Renew your membership today!

Discount on annual congresses, exclusive advantages, training courses and so much more

Join or renew
Tweet
Copyright 2016 ECTS - Disclaimer - Cookies Policy - Privacy Policy - Privacy Centre - Terms of use - Contact us