Co‐occurrence of DISH and HFI in the Terry Collection

Abstract

ABSTRACTDiffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) and hyperostosis frontalis internus (HFI) are both characterised by abnormal bone growth, a late age of onset, and an association with obesity, acromegaly and various metabolic disorders. In this study we examined the co‐occurrence of DISH and HFI in a sample of 406 black and whites aged 40–102 years old from the Terry Collection, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Fisher's exact tests showed the co‐occurrence was significant for females. DISH was present in 19.6% of black and 29.6% of white females with HFI versus 4.76% and 2.38% of control females without HFI. A similar frequency of DISH was seen in males with HFI (20% black and 27.3% white), but this was not significantly different from the male controls without HFI (16.8% and 18.9%). The risk of developing DISH for females with HFI was nearly 8.78 times greater (CI = 2.56–30.1) than for females without HFI. Logistic regression of the female data showed HFI was a significant determinant (p = 0.001) of the presence of DISH but age was not (p = 0.744). We suggest that similar metabolic, genetic and environmental risk factors in the pathogenesis of the two conditions explain the observed comorbitity. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.