FRIDAY, March 24 (HealthDay News) -- Children who have had more than one low-energy fracture tend to have lower bone mineral density (BMD) than their peers, but only 1.6 percent have a BMD that falls in the osteoporotic range, researchers reported this week at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in Chicago. The finding suggests that such children don't require a routine BMD scan, the authors say.
John M. Mazur, M.D., of the Nemours Children's Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., and colleagues assessed BMD in 64 children aged 5 to 17 years who had two or more such fractures. BMD was measured via dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan.
The BMD of the children's entire bodies did not differ significantly from those of controls. But the lumbar spine Z score was lower than -2.5 for one of the children, and the whole body spine Z score was -2.5 for two children, the researchers found.
"Our findings show that children with several incidences of fractures do not require bone mineral density testing," Mazur said in a statement. "Children who experience more than one fracture may indeed have decreased bone mineral density compared to other children their age, but certainly not enough to warrant additional x-ray testing or medical treatment."
Abstract
