Clinical and demographic aspects of Paget disease of bone: A multicentric study from Turkey

Paget disease of bone (PDB) is a metabolic bone disease that has been rarely reported in the Eastern countries. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical and demographic characteristics of patients with PDB followed up at endocrinology clinics in Turkey.

An invitation was sent to tertiary endocrinology clinics to complete a survey on the demographic, clinical, radiological, and laboratory parameters, as well as treatment modalities of patients with PDB. This study enrolled clinically and radiologically proven 185 patients with PDB from 18 endocrinology centers based in 10 cities of Turkey.

This cohort of PDB had female preponderance (women/men: 105/80) with a mean age, during diagnosis, of 57±10 years. Most of the patients (59.6%) were symptomatic at diagnosis. Bone pain and headache were the predominant clinical symptoms. Polyostotic disease was observed in 67.5% (n=125) of patients. Frequently affected bones were skull (41.6%), pelvis (53.5%), spine (41%), and femur (25.4%). Moreover, 17 patients with skull involvement had hearing loss. Mean serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) level (552±652 IU/L; range: 280-5762 IU/L) was over the normal reference cutoff with normal serum calcium levels. Intravenous bisphosphonates (zoledronic acid, 5 mg; pamidronate, 60-90 mg) were the most used drugs (75%) for the treatment of PDB. Most of the patients (87.1%) treated with intravenous bisphosphonates responded well, with a decrease in serum ALP level (117±114 IU/L) in the 12th month of therapy. Furthermore, 16 patients relapsed after the second year of therapy; 3 patients did not respond to the initial intravenous bisphosphonate treatment.

The patients with PDB followed up by endocrinology clinics of Turkey exhibited polyostotic disease with classical clinical, radiological, and biochemical features and women's predominance with good response to intravenous bisphosphonate therapy.