“Bone up” on bone density

Abstract

There is an appropriate growth in interest in bone mineralization in children with chronic disease. Unfortunately, technology may not be keeping up with this interest. In the current issue of The Journal, Gafni and Baron at the National Institutes of Health, report on 34 children referred to their center for participation in a study of children with osteoporosis. These workers looked at the referral information accompanying the children. Typically, the children had determination of bone mineral density (BMD) in local facilities that were mainly focused on studies of adults. Consequently, the BMD determinations frequently suffered from major flaws, such as failure to use age-, sex-, or ethnic-matched databases for comparison. The net result of this was that more than half of these children, referred for osteoporosis, had normal BMD.Physicians ordering BMD in children may wish to review this study with the centers or facilities they typically use for such measurements.Page 253 There is an appropriate growth in interest in bone mineralization in children with chronic disease. Unfortunately, technology may not be keeping up with this interest. In the current issue of The Journal, Gafni and Baron at the National Institutes of Health, report on 34 children referred to their center for participation in a study of children with osteoporosis. These workers looked at the referral information accompanying the children. Typically, the children had determination of bone mineral density (BMD) in local facilities that were mainly focused on studies of adults. Consequently, the BMD determinations frequently suffered from major flaws, such as failure to use age-, sex-, or ethnic-matched databases for comparison. The net result of this was that more than half of these children, referred for osteoporosis, had normal BMD. Physicians ordering BMD in children may wish to review this study with the centers or facilities they typically use for such measurements. Page 253