Lewis JR, et al. - Researchers explored the connection between abdominal aortic calcification (AAC), skeletal structure, and fractures in a prospective 10-year study of 1,024 older mostly Caucasian women (mean age 75.0±2.6 years) from the Perth Longitudinal Study of Aging cohort. For this investigation, AAC and spine fracture were evaluated at the time of hip densitometry and heel quantitative ultrasound. Using the Genant semi-quantitative method, prevalent vertebral fractures were assessed. Investigators found that older women with more severe AAC are at a greater danger of fracture, not fully indicated by predictors of bone structure. Women with moderate to severe AAC had higher fracture risk vs women with low AAC for 10-year incident clinical fractures and fracture-related hospitalizations, and this relationship stayed significant after adjusting for age and hip BMD for clinical fractures but was weakened for fracture-related hospitalizations. Vascular calcification and bone pathology may share similar causation mechanisms that still need to be fully explained.