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Evidence for 25‐hydroxyvitamin D deficiency as a factor contributing to osteopenia in diabetic patients with idiopathic haemochromatosis
Author(s) -
MONNIER LOUIS H.,
COLETTE CLAUDE,
RIBOT CLAUDE,
MION CHARLES,
MIROUZE JACQUES
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
european journal of clinical investigation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.164
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1365-2362
pISSN - 0014-2972
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2362.1980.tb00018.x
Subject(s) - medicine , osteopenia , endocrinology , calcium metabolism , calcium , bone mineral , osteoporosis
. Osteopenia is frequently encountered in the course of idiopathic haemochromatosis. In order to establish the mechanism of this bone disorder, the following parameters were studied in nine diabetic patients with idiopathic haemochromatosis: (i) the intestinal calcium absorption measured by using a double radiotracer technique; (ii) the bone mineral content (BMC, mg/cm 2 ) determined on the forearm by the Cameron's absorptiometry technique, (iii) the plasma 25 hydroxyvitamin D (25‐OH‐D ng/ml) by a competitive protein‐binding radioassay. The results were compared to those obtained in ten controls and in eight diabetics without haemochromatosis. The patients suffering from haemochromatosis had a significant fall in total fractional absorption of calcium and BMC as compared with controls and diabetics without haemochromatosis. Furthermore plasma 25‐OH‐D was significantly lower in haemochromatosis patients (51±0–6 ng/ml) than in controls (16‐4±1–3 ng/ml, P < 001) and in diabetics without haemochromatosis (14‐2±1–4 ng/ml, P < 0–02). These results indicate that haemochromatosis patients exhibit important disturbances in calcium homeostasis, i.e. low concentration of plasma 25‐OH‐D and reduced intestinal absorption of calcium. The latter abnormalities may well be related to the bone rarefaction observed in these patients.