The effect of nutritional rickets on bone mineral density

Nutritional rickets is caused by impaired mineralization of growing bone. The effect of nutritional rickets on areal bone mineral density (aBMD) has not been established.

Our objective was to determine if aBMD is lower in children with active rickets than in healthy control children. We expected that the reduction in aBMD would vary between the radial and ulnar metaphyses near the growth plates and the proximal diaphyses.

Case-control study.

Primary care outpatient department of a teaching hospital in Jos, Nigeria.

Nigerian children with radiographically-confirmed rickets were compared with a reference group of control children without rickets from the same community.

Forearm bone density measurements were performed in all children with pDXA. Age, sex, and height-adjusted bone density parameters were compared between children with rickets and control subjects.

A total of 264 children with active rickets (ages 13-120 months) and 660 control children (ages 11-123 months) were included. In multivariate analyses controlling for height, age, and gender, rickets was associated with a 4% greater bone area and 7% lower aBMD of the radial and ulnar metaphyses compared with controls (P < .001). The effects of rickets on the diaphyses of the radius and ulna were more pronounced with an 11% greater bone area, 21% lower aBMD, and 24% lower bone mineral apparent density than controls (P < .001). In children with rickets, aBMD values were unrelated to dairy product intake or serum calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, or 25-hydroxyvitamin D. Metaphyseal aBMD was positively associated with radiographic severity score, attributed to bone edge detection artifact by densitometry in active rickets.

Rickets results in increased bone area and reduced aBMD, which are more pronounced in the diaphyseal than in the metaphyseal regions of the radius and ulna, consistent with secondary hyperparathyroidism, generalized osteoid expansion and impaired mineralization.