Bisphosphonates, a drug class used to prevent the loss of bone density, are the first-line treatment for preventing fracture in osteoporosis patients. Osteoporosis is often associated with patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), who can suffer from low bone density and increased fracture risk, but there was little information available on the safety of bisphosphonates in patients with CKD.
Moderate to severe (stages 3-5) chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects up to 2.8 million people in the UK and 2.7 million people in Spain.
The Prieto-Alhambra Group for Pharmaco- and Device Epidemiology at Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology & Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS), in collaboration with SIDIAP, set out to understand the safety profile of bisphosphonates in patients with moderate to severe CKD. Using primary-care electronic records from two patient cohorts in the UK and Catalonia, Spain, they analysed the data from 4,000 bisphosphonate users and more than 15,000 non-users.