Bone Loss after Cardiac Transplantation

Although clinicians generally consider osteoporosis to be a disease primarily affecting postmenopausal women, other populations are also at high risk. One such group is recipients of organ transplants, who, as their long-term survival improves, have begun to face other medical problems, including osteoporosis. Transplant recipients have generally had long-standing, chronic disease and must receive high doses of antirejection medications designed to suppress their immune system. In this issue of the Journal, Shane et al. (pages 767–776) present data from a randomized trial in which patients who had received a cardiac transplant were given either a bisphosphonate (alendronate) or calcitriol, the . . .