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Long‐term bone loss in insulin‐dependent diabetes mellitus
Author(s) -
MATHIASSEN B.,
NIELSEN S.,
DITZEL J.,
RØDBRO P.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of internal medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.625
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1365-2796
pISSN - 0954-6820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2796.1990.tb00167.x
Subject(s) - medicine , osteopenia , diabetes mellitus , insulin , bone remodeling , endocrinology , confidence interval , pathological , osteoporosis , bone mineral
. The bone mineral content (BMC) in patients with insulin‐dependent diabetes is reduced by 10% early in the disease, but due to a lack of long‐term longitudinal studies it is unknown whether this diabetic osteopenia develops further through life. Over a time period of 11 years we examined the BMC in a group of seven adult insulin‐dependent diabetics, in whom physiological and pathological factors affecting bone metabolism had been excluded; the patients were well regulated without diabetic complications. The BMC was not significantly decreased at the initial examination. The longitudinal study revealed a small but statistically significant fall in BMC, mainly in trabecular bone. The narrow (95%) confidence interval of median end value (93.3–99.0% of initial BMC) indicates that the annual decrease in BMC in such patients is of the order of 0.5%, a reduction that is probably clinically insignificant.