Oral nitrate therapy does not affect postmenopausal bone density or turnover, according to results from a clinical trial.

The findings support the retraction for scientific misconduct of an influential earlier study which found “strikingly positive results”, the authors say.

The New Zealand researchers undertook a one-year, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial of three different nitrate preparations at two different doses in postmenopausal women with osteopenia, with a planned one-year observational extension.

The primary endpoint was change in bone mineral density (BMD) at the lumbar spine, while secondary endpoints included BMD changes at other sites, changes in bone turnover markers, and adverse events.