(i) Vertebral and femoral BMD of this Brazilian population varied with age similarly to other white female populations; (ii) provided that appropriate corrections are made for BW, the BMD of Brazilian women is comparable to the BMD of North-Americans; and (iii) the BW is important both in acquisition and decline of bone mass, as it influences the relation BMD-age.

The authors evaluated ovarian volumes by transvaginal ultrasonography at different periods after menopause. Ninety-eight postmenopausal women with an average age of 51.9 years and a one-to eight-year postmenopausal period were studied. The control group consisted of 40 women during menacme with an average age of 31.8 years, who were also submitted to transvaginal ultrasonography to evaluate ovarian volume. There was no significant difference between right and left ovarian volumes in the study groups. There was a significant decrease in measure and standard deviations of the volumes after the first year of menopause (mean volume -2.2 :t 0.9 cm 3 ) when compared to the control group (mean volume -6.3 :t 2.0 cm 3 ), followed by a slow and gradual shrinking after this phase. Decrease in ovarian volume became significant after the fourth postmenopausal year. Transvaginal ultrasonography demonstrated great importance as an investigative method of ovarian diseases in postmenopausal women.

We studied vertebral morphometry and its relation to bone mineral density (BMD) in normal Brazilian women (n = 605). All women (age 22-97 years) were ambulatory and healthy. A lateral spine scan was done for morphometric X-ray absorptiometry using an imaging densitometer. In 429 of these women, BMD of the spine and proximal femur also were measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. All women were white with mean (± 1 SD) age of 53.7 (± 9.5) years. About 21% of the women over 50 years had a T score for spine BMD lower than -2.5 SD, and 7% had a femoral neck BMD below this osteoporosis threshold. Vertebral heights (anterior, H A ; middle, H M ; and posterior, H P ) and ratios (H A /H P and H M /H P ) were assessed. There was no systematic difference between younger (20-49 years) and older (50+ years) women in heights or ratios. The vertebral heights were normalized for those observed in each individual case for the L2-L4 sequence. This normalization was adequate for all vertebral heights; the Z score averaged about +0.1. The average Z score for H A /H P was +0.01, but that for the H M /H P was −0.72, indicating that the latter ratio might differ from the reference population used (white American and European women). We observed a small positive correlation between vertebral heights and spine or femur BMD, but this was due entirely to the influence of body size on BMD. On a group basis, the H M /H P showed a significant association with axial BMD; the 1 SD difference between the lowest and highest quartile was associated with a difference of 8-15% (0.5-1.0

Women treated with CEE/MPA or tibolone showed significant improvement of postmenopausal symptoms, including urogenital and sexual health symptoms, and had similar bleeding patterns after four cycles of therapy. CEE/MPA and tibolone each induced a different mix of changes in the lipid profile.

Aims:To investigate the influence of body weight (BW), fat mass (FM) and lean mass (LM) on the bone mineral density (BMD) of several areas of the skeleton. Participants: Sixty one white postmenopausal women (50.1:t4.8 years). Measurements: Measurement of BMD by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. The results were analyzed by linear regression and the slopes of each curve were compared. Results: The results showed that the correlations between BW, FM and LM to BMD were positive, whilst the correlations between age and years since menopause to BMD were negative. LM was the main factorthat influenced BMD in almost ali areas. Conclusions: FM and LM present a positive effect on BMD, although LM is the main determinant of bone mass. Moreover, higher values of LM and FM present a protective effect against the reduction of BMD combined with menopause. Therefore postmenopáusal women with low BW, especially low LM, present serious risk for developing osteoporosis.