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Stop Osteoporosis! Two Danger Signs – USMLE

harrissymptomsky · April 7, 2023 · Leave a Comment

This video explained about the dangerous signs, causes, and treatments for osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis can affect these bones that we can find in the pelvis of the human

body. This bone over here is the femur, the longest bone of the human body and

it is a truly strong bone. The compact bone in the femur as well as the spongy

bone of the femur have an incredibly strong structure that can bear weight

that is transferred from the upper part of the body to the sacrum bone over here

and the hip bone over here. Osteoporosis causes a destruction of the spongy bone

and the compact bone and thus it can lead to fractures of the human bones

that can ultimately lead to death. So let’s explain what osteoporosis is and

after we explain what it is, let’s explain some possible causes besides

aging and lower estrogen levels and then let’s explain dangerous signs we should

never ignore. So the loss of bones mass, micro architecture and density is

defined as osteoporosis. This weakens even the strongest bones of the human

body and fractures of femur are one of the most dangerous fractures that the

human body can experience. But osteoporosis does not only affect the

pelvic bones, it also affects this over here. Well this is not a dinosaur or a

reptile. This what you can see here is the vertebral column of the human body.

So one thing we can do to diagnose osteoporosis in all of those bones is send

radiation through those bones, the hip bone, the femur and the lumbar spine and

then we can measure how much of the radiation is absorbed by these bones. We

refer to this examination as DXA, Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry and that can

help us define osteoporosis and strike the right diagnosis. Healthy bones are

supposed to absorb a lot of radiation, a lot of x-rays. Why? Because they are dense

but osteoporosis reduces the density of the bone tissue and it causes

micro architecture to deteriorate. Therefore osteoporotic bones cannot

absorb the radiation and a lot of radiation simply goes through them. By

measuring just how much radiation is absorbed in these bones we can calculate

the so-called T-score and if the T-score is less than minus 2.5 then we have the

right diagnosis, osteoporosis. In osteoporosis T-score is a statistical

measurement of bone mineral density. Low bone mineral density leads to

fractures and that brings us to the second way I wanted to explain on how we

can actually diagnose osteoporosis. Sometimes an easier way to diagnose

osteoporosis is to simply look at an x-ray scan and try to find typical

osteoporotic fractures on femur, hip bone or lumbar vertebrae. For example a

compression fracture of the lumbar vertebrae. But in osteoporotic patients

fractures that look similar to normal fractures can also happen but this time

with minimal trauma while running and there are also reports that fractures

can happen when sneezing and coughing. So lower levels of estrogen in older age

are thought to be the main reason why osteoporotic changes happen and why

bones are more prone to fractures. But what if that’s not always the case? What

if there’s something that we’re doing or an underlying condition that causes

osteoporosis and we don’t know about it? But before we explain these secondary

causes of osteoporosis I want to say that there are a lot of people who

actually do do these things that cause secondary osteoporosis or have

underlying conditions that are causing it. Therefore you can help us reach them

by liking this video and that will make YouTube suggest our videos to other

people searching for osteoporosis but you can also share this video with your

friends and colleagues. At the end if you like our video you can subscribe for

more videos in the future but make sure you click that bell button and then

click all because we noticed that YouTube doesn’t really suggest most of

our videos to our audience if they don’t click on all of these things. But now

back to the things we can do that can cause osteoporosis. This which you can

see here is a list of medications that doctors often prescribe to their

patients. Medications that can cause osteoporosis. Aromatase inhibitors,

gonadotropin releasing hormone analogs and selective estrogen receptor

modulators can all reduce the level of estrogen and that ultimately causes

osteoporosis which results in fractures. Corticosteroids a type of medication that

often causes secondary osteoporosis. A healthy bone is constantly resorbed by

the cells called osteoclasts and rebuilt by the cells called osteoblasts. This

natural process of rebuilding the bones of the human body can be disturbed by

corticosteroids and they can increase bone resorption and reduce bone

formation. But besides doctors causing osteoporosis by prescribing medication

they shouldn’t prescribe or prescribing too much of it, conditions such as

hyperthyroidism and Cushing’s syndrome could also be a cause of secondary

osteoporosis. But how do we recognize and how do we discover these signs that

indicate that conditions such as hyperthyroidism, Cushing’s syndrome or a

wrong type of medication is causing secondary osteoporosis? Two signs that I

always pay attention to when it comes to secondary osteoporosis caused by either

medication or an underlying condition are the onset of osteoporosis and the

progression of osteoporosis. The primary form of osteoporosis that develops with

aging and lower estrogen levels usually develops over a longer period of time

and then after a therapy has been applied with bisphosphonates,

teraparotide, calcium or vitamin D it slows down. Secondary form of

osteoporosis that is caused by medications or an underlying condition

develops more rapidly and then it doesn’t respond well to a standard

therapy for osteoporosis but instead it keeps progressing. So those are the two

signs we have to look after rapid onset and therapy resistance. So if you’re a

doctor and you want to make a video like this one go to anatomsky.com but if

you have more questions about osteoporosis then go to this link

symptomsky.com/help/osteoporosis while both good subscribe to

our channel.

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