Bone mineral density of the lumbar spine in psoriatic patients with long term etretinate therapy.

Etretinate has been known to produce a variety of skeletal manifestations when administered for prolonged periods. To study whether osteoporotic changes occurred during the treatment bone mineral density (BMD) was measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry in 13 psoriatic patients who received long term etretinate therapy (average 3.7 yrs). The values of BMD of the lumbar spine in these patients were decreased from those of age-matched controls (92.3 +/- 9.7%), p < 0.01), while those in psoriatic patients who received topical corticosteroid applications alone showed no significant decrease. Our findings suggest that long term etretinate intake induces an increased risk of osteoporotic changes.