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Association between long‐term acitretin therapy and osteoporosis: no evidence of increased risk
Author(s) -
McMullen E. A.,
McCarron P.,
Irvine D.,
Dolan O. M.,
Allen G. E.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
clinical and experimental dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.587
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1365-2230
pISSN - 0307-6938
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2230.2003.01265.x
Subject(s) - acitretin , medicine , osteoporosis , etretinate , osteopenia , hypervitaminosis a , bone mineral , bone density , dermatology , surgery , pediatrics , psoriasis , vitamin , retinol
Summary Osteoporosis has been observed with chronic hypervitaminosis A, leading some authors to hypothesize that systemic retinoids may have an effect on bone mineral density. Two previous small studies identified osteoporosis in patients who received long‐term therapy with etretinate. Etretinate has now been superceeded by acitretin in clinical use. We hypothesized that bone mineral density is lower in patients taking long‐term acitretin than control cases who had never taken acitretin. Thirty Caucasian patients receiving acitretin for a median of 3.6 years for a variety of dermatoses were studied. Bone mineral density measurements were determined using DEXA scanning at two standard sites, the lumbar spine and Ward's triangle. We did not find an association between daily dose of acitretin, total dose administered or overall duration of treatment and risk of osteopenia or osteoporosis. Acitretin appears to be safe for long‐term use in patients with chronic dermatoses.