ABNORMALITIES OF CALCIUM DEPOSITION IN DIABETES MELLITUS

Abstract

The occurrence in the George F. Baker Clinic recently of two cases of compression "fractures" or crushing of the vertebrae with generalized decalcification of bones focused our attention anew on the question of calcium metabolism in diabetes. The subject is of importance both to doctors and to patients. Thus, one of the patients referred to made her illness the basis of a lawsuit in which she sued a physician in her home city, maintaining that improper treatment of the diabetes was the cause of her disability. The importance of information as to the incidence of decalcification of bone in diabetes is obvious. The possibility also exists that with a growing tendency in some clinics, both in America and abroad, toward the use of diets extremely low in fat, cream may be withdrawn from the dietary, and it may be forgotten that unless milk, whole or skimmed, is supplied, the calcium