Peripheral bone mineral content in patients with fatty liver and hepatic cirrhosis

The aim of our study was to determine peripheral bone mineral content (BMC) and serum osteocalcin (OC) levels in two groups of patients with fatty liver and hepatic cirrhosis as compared with a control group comprising healthy subjects. Group I consisted of 18 male patients (mean age, 51 years) with hepatic steatosis, group II included 23 men (mean age, 52 years) with hepatic cirrhosis. In all patients diagnosis was established with ultrasonic examination of the liver; 18 patients in group II underwent additional blind liver biopsies. The control group consisted of 23 subjects. Analysis of variance showed marked differences between the three groups (p less than 0.001). Peripheral BMC was significantly lower in patients with liver cirrhosis (BMC, 46.8 U) than in both patients with fatty liver (BMC, 54.7 U) and the control group (BMC, 60.7 U). However, no statistically significant differences in BMC values occurred between patients with hepatic steatosis and the controls. Serum osteocalcin levels followed a pattern similar to that of BMC values. A statistically significant decrease in osteocalcin values was found in the liver cirrhosis group (OC, 3.9 ng/ml) compared with the control group (OC, 6.6 ng/ml) and with the patients with hepatic steatosis (OC, 6.2 ng/ml). According to these results, clearly reduced BMC and decreased OC levels are found in patients with chronic alcoholic liver disease. However, these reductions are essentially influenced by the extent of morphologic changes in liver structure.