[Quantitative computerized tomographic bone mineral analysis in patients treated by regular haemodialysis (author's...

Quantitative bone measurement has been done on the forearms of 40 patients (aged 20 to 67 years) undergoing long-term haemodialysis treatment. It turned out that trabecular bone shows a more substantial change of the mineralization than does cortical bone. In comparison to an age-correlated undialysed normal range the mean trabecular bone density was found decreased up to 100 percent, whereas cortical bone with a mean demineralization of 10 percent did not appear to be affected by the renal osteodystrophic alterations to that degree. Finally the results show that throughout the course of dialysis treatment there was a trend toward distinct loss of bone mineral with time. No relationship could be demonstrated between the bone mineral values and various biochemical parameters. The estimation of osseous mineral content in both trabecular and cortical bone was done with the aid of an improved computer assisted tomographic method introduced by Rutherford and Pullan.