BONE MINERAL DENSITY IN SINGAPORE CHILDREN: A PILOT STUDY
Lee YS, Low SL, Loke KY
National University Hospital, Singapore
Objectives: To examine the areal
and volumetric bone mineral density (BMD) of healthy children, and the
association with age, gender, height and pubertal stages.
Methods: Twenty-six subjects
were screened and BMD of lumbar spine, femoral necks, and total body were
measured using the Norland DEXA model XR-36. There were fifteen females and eleven males (twenty-four
Chinese and two Indians).
Results: Areal BMD of lumbar
spine and femoral neck increase with age, height, and pubertal stages. There was also positive correlation
between total body BMD and age.
However, the correlations between volumetric BMD of lumbar spine and
femoral necks with age, height and pubertal stage are poor.
Conclusion: Areal BMD increases with age, height and pubertal
stages, but volumetric BMD is less dependent on age and growth
variables. Thus the increase
in areal BMD with age and growth variables may be largely due to increase
in bone volume rather than bone mineral deposition, which is largely
corrected for in the volumetric BMD model. Age, height and pubertal stage
must be taken into consideration when establishing normal reference values
for bone mineral density in children.