World Health Organization defines osteoporosis as the systemic skeletal\ndisorder characterized by low bone mass and bone micro architect disorder,\nresulting in increased bone fragility and tendency to frequent fractures. This\ndefinition applies to adults. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, osteoporosis may occur, at a lower frequency, in both children and\nadolescents. Childhood osteoporosis may appear as a fracture after minor\ninjury, whereas in adolescents – juvenile osteoporosis, may appear as a\ncompressive vertebral fracture and a metaphysis fracture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Childhood osteoporosis is classified as primary (endogenous bone disorder,\nusually genetic etiology) and secondary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Causes of secondary osteoporosis in children include: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Diseases that cause\nimmobility such as cerebral palsy or spinal cord injury and Duchenne muscular\ndystrophy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Inflammatory conditions\nsuch as adolescent rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and systemic lupus\nerythematosus, which by means of cytokines – deregulate the cycle of bone\nreconstruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Long-term, high doses of\noral therapy, with corticosteroids. Taking corticosteroids or agents in any\nform (pills, injections, inhalers) for a long time can delay bone growth in\nchildren. This increases the chances for low bone mass then. Corticosteroids\nare used in the treatment of diseases such as arthritis, asthma and Crohn’s\ndisease (colitis).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Difficulty in development\nof puberty and low body weight due to causes such as Mediterranean anemia, past\nmalignancies treated with chemotherapy and radiation, fibrocystic disease, or\neven neurogenic anorexia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Incomplete Osteogenesis\n(Osteogenesis imperfecta) or osteoporosis – a genetic disorder of the\nconnective tissue that affects collagen, an important element of the bone, condition\nwhich leads to brittleness of bone. It is a genetic condition due to\ninappropriate structural construction of collagen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The clinical picture of childhood osteoporosis varies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Common fractures are often reported with minor injury. Compressive\nfractures of the vertebral bodies often show symptoms of back pain, spinal\ndeformity and height loss, but sometimes they are asymptomatic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Causes of adolescence osteoporosis<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Usually, there is no special cause. It is a rare disease, self-limiting and\nusually involves a previously healthy child. The pathogenesis of the disease is\nunder investigation, and there is evidence of impaired bone reconstruction. It\nappears with the same frequency in both sexes, usually between the ages of 8\nand 12. It sneaks in with symptoms like pain in the lumbar and lower limbs,\ndifficulty walking, sometimes muscle weakness, knee pain as well as fractures\nof the lower limbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Examination method for childhood and adolescence osteoporosis<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The method of choice for measuring bone density in children is the X-DXA\ndouble-energy beam absorption method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– Secure, fast, low-cost,\nultra-low radiation method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– Very accurate and repeatable.\nThere is availability of pediatric normal values based on age, race and sex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– It can estimate for a\nfuture fracture risk<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– It measures the inorganic\nsalts per unit area<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– Decreased bone mass is\nestimated in children with already diagnosed bone frailty<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– Establishment of a special\ntherapy plan and monitoring of interventions over time<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– Predicts peak bone mass<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s always combined with a complete clinical and laboratory investigation\nof the young patient, while a lateral x-ray of the spine has preceded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It should, also, be noted that DXA is an excellent tool for the study of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– The body’s development\nover time, in the context of chronic childhood illnesses<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– Response of the body to\ntherapeutic interventions (such as a special diet, exercise, use of medicines).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– Also, used to control body\ncomposition (fat-muscle mass). Body composition (lypometry) is not routine.\nPhysiological values depend on gender, age and awareness stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also, the greatest clinical experience in extreme weight values as in:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– Psychogenic anorexia (correlation of% fat and retrieval of menstruation,\nexercise and diet guidance)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– Fat (correlation of% fat with the occurrence of metabolic syndrome to\nearly intervention in lifestyle).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In conclusion, bone health assessment aims to identify children and\nadolescents who can benefit from medical interventions to reduce the risk of a\nclinically significant fracture due to osteoporosis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
World Health Organization defines osteoporosis as the systemic skeletal disorder characterized by low bone mass and bone micro architect disorder, resulting in increased bone fragility and tendency to frequent fractures. This definition applies to adults. However, osteoporosis may occur, at a lower frequency, in both children and adolescents. Childhood osteoporosis may appear as a fracture<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,52],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-4800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-en","category-health-en","tag-osteoporosis-in-children"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irodotosmed.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irodotosmed.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irodotosmed.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irodotosmed.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irodotosmed.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4800"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/irodotosmed.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4804,"href":"https:\/\/irodotosmed.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4800\/revisions\/4804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irodotosmed.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irodotosmed.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irodotosmed.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}