Bone Abstracts

Bisphosphonate treatment reduces fracture risk in women with postmenopausal osteoporosis. However, some patients have an inadequate response to treatment. Estradiol and sclerostin play an important role in bone metabolism. Sclerostin is an endogenous inhibitor of osteoblastic activity and estrogen deficiency increases osteoclast activity and bone resorption.We examined the influence of both measures on fracture incidence in postmenopausal osteoporosis in...

The main cause of the bone destruction in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a destructive act of aggressively growing pannus, growth and angiogenesis of which are caused by the proliferation of fibroblasts in the synovium (S) due to the activation of fibroblast growth factor (FGF).Objectives: To reveal relationships of FGF with ultrasonic and arthroscopic and proliferative-destructive histological figures in RA.Methods: Complete compreh...

Cases of non-vitamin D deficiency rickets have been reported in African countries including The Gambia, South Africa and Nigeria where the likely aetiology is a chronically low dietary calcium intake. Additional aetiological factors in Gambian studies are iron deficiency leading to a disruption in phosphate metabolism.Surgical correction of pathological rickets-like lower-limb deformities is the most common operation performed at the Beit Cure Orthopaedi...

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is defined according to the presence of kidney damage and level of kidney function – irrespective of the type of kidney disease (diagnosis). Among individuals with chronic kidney disease, the stages are defined based on the level of glomerular filtration rate. From infancy through young adulthood, the major causes of CKD arise from congenital abnormalities of the kidneys and urinary tract (CAKUT), acquired or congenital forms of nephrotic synd...

Background: Primary tumoral calcinosis is an orphan disease. The data about the incidence of this disease, as well as clinical recommendations for treatment are not presented in the literature.Presenting problem: Two patients – 11.5 years old boy and 8 years old girl with primary tumoral calcinosis had multiple foci of the subcutaneous calcification, walking impossibility, wheel-chair condition, fatigue, high fever and equinus deformity of the left ...

Background: Severe vitamin D deficiency (VDD), is a common disorder, which has complications including rickets, hypocalcaemia, hypotonia, delayed development and cardiomyopathy. Although nutritional rickets associated craniosynostosis has been reported, there is little awareness of this or knowledge about its clinical course or severity. We present five cases of late onset craniosynostosis in association with nutritional rickets.Clinical presentation: Th...

In advanced ER+ve breast cancer, the propensity of bone involvement is 85%. Similarly in advanced lung cancer, 30–40% of patients develop bone metastases, and as recent advances in lung cancer therapies improve survival, the number of patients living with bone metastases is expected to increase. At the same time there is a paucity of especially ER+ and osteoblastic animal models available. We present herein the development of four mouse models of breast and lung cancer su...

Osteocytes make up >90% of bone cells, are embedded in mineralised matrix where they form a communication network. Osteocytes differentiate from osteoblasts, and are mechano-sensitive. They are very difficult to isolate with a dependence on cell lines for in vitro studies of osteocyte biology. Therefore new methods to study these cells are essential. Recent publications indicate that osteoblasts maintained in in vitro 3D collagen gels may differentiate to...

Osteoporosis and vertebral fractures are recognised complications of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) but the underlying causes are incompletely understood. Osteoprotegerin (OPG) is a decoy receptor for RANK-L and inhibits osteoclastogenesis. We have previously demonstrated that antibodies to OPG (OPG-Ab) are associated with osteoporosis and increased bone turnover in patients with autoimmune diseases. The aim of this study was to determine whether OPG-Abs were detectable in AS pat...

Objectives: To describe the incidence of vertebral fractures in steroid-treated children.Methods: Fractures were assessed prospectively each year for 3 years according to the Genant semi-quantitative method. Proportions of children with incident fractures were determined annually over the study period. To examine associations with baseline clinical factors, the 3-year total number of incident fractures was analyzed using multivariable Poisson regression....