[Prevalence and risk factors in diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis in a population sample in Hungary]

The aim of the study was to get some information on the epidemiology and etiology of DISH which is a frequent, chronic, benign musculoskeletal disease. In order to investigate the epidemiology of DISH the authors planned a population-based cross-sectional study and to investigate the etiology of the disease they planned a case-control study. The prevalence of DISH in Hungary in men over the age of 50 years is 5.8% and in women is 1.3%. In men DISH begins earlier in the lifetime and over the age of 65 years the prevalence increases rapidly in both sexes. In men throughout the life the disease is more common and more severe than in women. In the case-control study the authors investigated the association of the disease with risk factors as obesity, hyperuricemia, hypercholesterinemia, hypertriglyceridemia. Hyperuricemia was significantly more frequently found in DISH than in the control group. In the name of DISH the word "idiopathic" is questionable because apart from the known glucose metabolic imbalance other metabolic abnormalities (uric acid) could be found. There might be a complex metabolic disturbance in the etiology of DISH.