African Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology Vol. 6(28), pp. 2133-2140, 29 July, 2012 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJPP DOI: 10.5897/AJPP12.363 ISSN 1996-0816 ©2012 Academic Journals Full Length Research Paper Efficacy of different medicines used for the treatment of osteoporosis by using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry Perveen Zaidi, Muhammad Hanif*, Shahid Kamal, Salman Habib and Akhtar Ahmed Karachi Institute of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine, Pakistan. Accepted 7 May, 2012 Osteoporosis, a skeletal disease and common condition affecting one in three women and one in twelve men is a major health burden worldwide and in our population as well. A total of 180 patients including 30 in control group, 126 osteoporotics and 54 osteopenics, were diagnosed and analyzed with the help of bone mineral density (BMD) by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) and treated in different groups with different brands of medicines; bisphophonates (alendronates and risederonates). Overall results in the therapy group BMD (g/cm²) spine improved from 0.748 ± 0.0088 to 0.777 ± 0.0091 after one year of treatment while BMD hip rose from 0.713 ± 0.0087 to 0.730 ± 0.009 in a similar period. In the osteoporotic group (n = 106), BMD spine increased from 0.699 ± 0.0077 to 0.727 ± 0.007 and BMD hip from 0.679 ± 0.009 to 0.693 ± 0.009. In the osteopenic group (n = 44), BMD spine increased from 0.863 ± 0.011 to 0.898 ± 0.011 and BMD hip from 0.793 ± 0.007 to 0.817 ± 0.012. Patients on Osto, Drate and Fosamax (alendronates) did better than those on Dronate and Actonel (risedronates). Of alendronates, Fosamax and Osto treated patients did better than those on Drate. Of risedronates, Actonel treated patients faired better than those on Dronate which showed the least improvement. Key words: Osteoporosis, osteopenia, bone mineral density, DEXA, alendronate, risedronate. INTRODUCTION Osteoporosis is a skeletal disease characterized by low bone mass and micro architectural deterioration of bone tissue, leading to enhanced bone fragility and a consequent increase in fracture risk. Osteoporosis is a common condition affecting one in three women and one in 12 men, resulting in a substantial morbidity, excess mortality, health and social services expenditure (Nelson et al., 2002). The WHO definition of osteoporosis is based on measurement of bone mineral density (BMD) of >2.5 standard deviations (SD) below the mean for young adults, while osteopenia is defined as a BMD between 1 and 2.5 SDs below the means for young adults (T score) (Estell, 1998) (WHO report, 1994). The risk of fracture increases to three fold for each SD decrease in BMD (Martial et al., 1996). The disease is common in postmenopausal women (Melton et al., 1990); however, *Corresponding author. E-mail: hanifmuhammad@hotmail.com. the disease prevalence varies in different population. Umer et al. (2003) reported the prevalence of osteoporosis 8.7% and osteopenia 22.5% in postmenopausal in Mayo hospital Lahore. In another mega study, 40% postmenopausal osteopenia and 7% osteoporosis was found by peripheral bone densitometry (Siris et al., 2001). It is widely accepted that BMD measurement using DEXA is the gold standard of diagnosis for osteoporosis (Siris et al., 2001; Lewiecki et al., 2004; Grampp et al., 1999). A study conducted by Habiba et al. (2002) at Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar in 1997 to 1998 on thousand postmenopausal women for simple calculated osteoporosis risk estimation, found that 75.3% were predisposed to osteoporosis and the risk increased with age (97% in women of 75 to 84 years of age compared to 55% in women of 45 to 54 years of age). The importance of developing treatments that reduce the risk of fracture is evident, both from an individual and a societal perspective, and a number of agents are available that have been shown in randomized