Background
The decrease in the level of osteocalcin conjugate, which binds to hydroxyapatite, may result in a decline in bone formation in postmenopausal women. The level of osteocalcin conjugate, however, increases significantly after vitamin K2 treatment, which suggests the marked contribution of vitamin K2 to the improvement of bone metabolism. But, there are no available data about the effects of that drug in Korean postmenopausal women.
Subjects and Methods: We evaluated 34 postmenopausal osteoporotic Korean women retrospectively who visited and treated for 1-year at climacteric clinic in Samsung Cheil Hospital & Women's Health Care Center from Apr. 2000 to Aug. 2002. Subjects were stratified in 2 groups by the treatment regimen. Group I was treated with HRT only, group II had HRT with vitamin K2 (Glakay?; Dae Woong Pharm. Co., Korea). Subjects were measured BMD at lumbar spine and markers of bone turnover before and after treatment.
Results
Mean changes of markers of bone turnover after 3-Month of treatment were markedly significant in both groups. But no significant differences were noted between both groups in these bone markers. There was no significant increase of spinal BMD in group II compared to HRT only treated group (5.1±2.9% vs 4.1±2.6%).
Conclusion
Our data showed that treatment with vitamin K2 and HRT for postmenopausal osteoporotic Korean women could not increase BMD significantly. So, we concluded that vitamin K2 supplementation with HRT was not beneficial to increase spinal BMD.
