[Osteoporosis associated with inflammatory bowel diseases]

Inflammatory bowel diseases, most frequently Crohn's disease, are frequently accompanied by decreased bone mineral content (30-70%). The osteopenia is not explained by the side effects of treatment or the secondary malabsorption. There must be a common pathological pathway in the background. The mineral content of bones is most easily measured by dual-ray absorptiometry. The measurement should be performed at the time of the diagnosis of bowel disease. It is useful to perform some routine laboratory examinations (serum calcium and phosphate, urinary calcium excretion level, etc.) and some special tests (serum osteocalcin and crosslaps) to exclude some other pathological pathways as well as to plan the anti-osteoporotic therapy. Appropriate calcium and vitamin-D supplementation is essential in prevention and therapy as well. Several drug-classes have proven useful in the therapy of severe osteoporosis associated with inflammatory bowel diseases such as bisphosphonates, hormone replacement therapy, selective estrogen receptor modulators and calcitonin. The authors provide an algorithm for the therapy of metabolic bone disease in inflammatory bowel disease.