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Secondary osteoporosis plays an important role in the pathogenesis of hip and spine fractures, but relatively little is known about the potential impact of secondary osteoporosis and fall-related disorders on the risk of distal forearm fractures. To address this issue, we conducted a population-based, nested case-control study comparing 496 Rochester, Minnesota, residents with an initial distal forearm fracture to an equal number of age- and gender-matched controls. Potential risk factors were assessed by review of each subject’s complete (inpatient and outpatient) medical records in the community (median duration >30 years) and analyzed using multiple logistic regression. Although history of diabetes mellitus in women (odds ratio [OR] 0.34, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.15–0.75) and long-term anticonvulsant use in both genders (OR 3.58, 95% CI 1.26–10) were independently associated with fracture risk in a multivariate analysis, the conditions linked with secondary osteoporosis had, in aggregate, no statistically significant association with distal forearm fractures. Fall-related conditions altogether were associated with a borderline increase in risk (OR 1.36, 95% CI 0.98–1.91) and might have accounted for 19% of forearm fracture occurrence in the community. Among women (OR 2.72, 95% CI 1.20–6.19), but not men, a history of prior osteoporotic fracture was also associated with an increase in distal forearm fractures. These factors do not appear to account for the discrepancy in forearm fracture incidence in women when compared with men. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Although osteoporosis has traditionally been considered a disease of women, men also incur substantial bone loss with aging, and elderly men have age-specific hip fracture incidence rates and vertebral fracture prevalence rates that are at least half those in women. Early postmenopausal bone loss (which results in the syndrome of type I osteoporosis) is due to the direct skeletal consequences of estrogen deficiency, manifested by an increase in bone resorption without an adequate increase in bone formation. Recent evidence indicates that even late postmenopausal bone loss (type II or ‘senile’ osteoporosis) in women may be due to estrogen deficiency. In particular, the late consequences of estrogen deficiency in elderly women result in abnormalities in calcium homeostasis and increases in parathyroid hormone secretion, leading to increased bone resorption and bone loss. The etiology of bone loss in aging men has remained relatively unclear. Recent evidence from a male deficient in estrogen receptor-alpha and in two males with aromatase deficiency indicate that estrogen may play a significant role in bone metabolism in men. Moreover, several large epidemiologic studies have found that bone mineral density correlates better with serum estrogen than testosterone in aging men. Thus estrogen deficiency may lead to bone loss in men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a population-based retrospective cohort study in which 138 Olmsted County, Minnesota residents first diagnosed with Parkinson's disease during 1967-79 were matched by age and sex to an equal number if control subjects from the community. Introduction; Methods; Results; Discussion.

Abstract. Population-based data on varicella complications are presented using information both from national sample surveys of hospitalizations and physician office visits and from reviews of medical records for all cases occurring within one community (Olmsted County, Minnesota) during a specified period. Acute cerebellar ataxia is the most common neurologic complication of varicella and occurs about once in 4,000 varicella cases among children younger than 15 years of age. Among adults, varicella pneumonia is the most common complication and results in hospitalization about once in every 400 varicella cases. Overall, varicella accounts for approximately 4,000 hospitalizations and 364,000 physician office visits annually in the United States and represents an important continuing source of childhood and adult morbidity. Pediatrics 1986;78(suppl):723-727. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical records were reviewed for all 173 cases of herpes zoster diagnosed among residents of Rochester, Minnesota, less than 20 years of age during the period 1960 through 1981. The incidence of zoster increased with age from 20 cases per 100,000 person-years in those residents less than five years of age to 63 cases per 100,000 person-years in those aged 15 to 19. Morbidity was less than has been described in adults, as only two patients required hospitalization and no postherpetic neuralgia or other late complications were diagnosed. The single case of subsequent cancer found in 1,288 person-years of follow-up was not significantly different from the number expected based on cancer incidence in the general Rochester population. The incidence of childhood zoster in patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia was 122 times higher than in children without an underlying malignancy. Chickenpox in the first year of life was found to be a risk factor for childhood zoster, with a relative risk between 2.8 and 20.9. Neither chickenpox in the second year of life nor recent vaccinations were found to be risk factors for childhood zoster. Pediatrics 1985;76:512-517; herpes zoster, varicella, leukemia, population-based studies, epidemiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]