Tuan V. Nguyen FAHMS​

I have established the Bone and Muscle Research Laboratory at Ton Duc Thang University (Vietnam). The lab is equipped with a dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (Hologic Horizon, USA), a peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT, Stratec, Germany), a system of balance and muscle testing, and a system of digital X-ray for imaging analyses.  The lab is also a training ground for doctors and scientists who are interested in (as the name implies) bone and muscle research. I am looking for scientists and doctors who have a good track record of bone research to join the lab. 

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In 2015, with a support from the University we initiated the Vietnam Osteoporosis Study (VOS) considered to be one of the largest studies of its kind in Asia. VOS will make substantial contributions to osteoporosis research nationally and internationally. 

Goals and Aims

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The Study is primarily aimed at investigating the extent and determinants of osteoporosis and osteoporotic fractures in the Vietnamese population. Another aim of VOS is to understand how osteoporosis is related to other chronic diseases, including osteoarthritis, sarcopenia, obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease. The overall goal of VOS is to map genetic and environmental factors that underlie the risk of fragility fracture and the co-occurrence of related chronic diseases (i.e., the so-called "diseasome") in the Vietnamese people. It is also my intention that through VOS we will help building the capacity for high quality population based research and bioinformatics for the next generation of Vietnamese scientists.

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Design

VOS is designed as a cohort, family-based study. Participants will be drawn from multiple families who are living in Ho Chi Minh City and rural areas. The participants, all aged 18 years and older, will then be followed for 10 years to record the incidence of fractures and chronic diseases. Extensive baseline data are collected. At baseline, participants are required to complete two questionnaires concerning their demographic factors, medical history, medication, physical activity, dietary habits, and lifestyle factors. Skeletal assessments include digital X-ray (of the knee, hip, spine, and hand), whole body, spinal and hip bone mineral density by DXA (Hologic Horizon, USA), architectural properties of cortical and trabecular bone by peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT, Stratec, Germany). Measurements of carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) are performed at Tam Duc Hospital using a Philips HD7XE ultrasound device with the 7 MHz B-type linear transducer. In addition, fasting blood samples are collected for analyzing glucose, HbA1c, creatinine, lipid parameters, and vitamin D. Genomic DNA is extracted from blood for further genetic and exposome analyses. We plan to conduct whole-genome sequencing (WGS) on 200 individuals from the Study. The individuals will be selected to ensure a spectrum of diseases of interest, including osteoporosis. We hope that the WGS data will serve as a reference for the Vietnamese population. Once the Study is completed, we will archive all de-identified data in the internet so that they are publicly available to researchers worldwide.

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Preliminary data

We have recruited 4517 participants from 817 families. The average age of participants was 51, with approximately 45% of the individuals aged 50 years and older. Approximately 3% of participants were obese (body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m2), and 21% were overweight. Notably, 11% of participants aged 40 years and older were diabetic. Among those aged 50 years and older, approximately 14% of women and 5% of men had osteoporosis (i.e., femoral neck BMD T-scores ≤ -2.5).

In summary, VOS is a major osteoporosis research project in Vietnam and Asia. The Project will make use of advances in new scientific disciplines of network medicine, "exposome", and genome to develop a unified predictive framework for annotating the human genome for genetic variants and network of environmental factors (eg chemical exposures) that likely contribute to the co-occurrence of osteoporosis and chronic diseases. I hope that the outcome of VOS will provide an insight into the pathogenesis of osteoporosis and its related conditions.

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