The Relationship between Endogenous Testosterone, Preandrogens, and Sex Hormone Binding Globulin and Knee Joint Structure in Women at Midlife
Section snippets
Methods
One hundred and thirty-nine eligible participants were recruited from a previous cross-sectional study of 1423 women examining the role of androgens in women (10). Initially, 176 women entered the new cross-sectional study of androgens and knee joint structure; however, women who were on any form of hormonal therapy (37 subjects) were not included in this analysis. Women were eligible for this study if they were aged 40 to 67 years, had agreed to be re-contacted for further studies, and had not
Results
One hundred and seventy-six nonhysterectomized women completed the study protocol. We excluded from the analysis the 37 women who were known to be using any form of systemic exogenous sex hormone or glucocorticosteroid therapy or a history of systemic treatment for hirsutism or acne, resulting in a study population of 139 women with a mean age of 52.0 ± 6.5 years and body mass index (BMI) of 27.1 ± 5.5 kgm−2 (Table 1). Other demographic variables including the hormone variables measured are
Discussion
This is the first study to explore the relationships between endogenous T, preandrogens and SHBG, and knee joint structure in healthy women at midlife. In this cross-sectional study we found no associations between the hormone measured and tibial and patella knee structure as measured by cartilage volume, defects, and bone. There was a statistically significant positive association between the SHBG term and patella bone volume when the analysis included adjustment for age, weight, and height.
We
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) grant numbers 219279 and 334267. We acknowledge the support of the Roy Morgan International for assistance with the recruitment of women to the original cross-sectional study from which women for this study were recruited.
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This work was supported by grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (Grant 334267).