BES2002 Poster Presentations Bone (11 abstracts)
Paediatric Department, General Hospital of Nikea, Piraeus, Greece.
INTRODUCTION
Twelve prepubertal children (7 boys and 5 girls) who had been continuously using I.C.S. for at least 3 to 5 years in a prescribed dose of at least 500-800 micrograms per day were included in the study. Age ranged from 4 to 11 years. Duration of I.C.S. treatment ranged from 3 to 5 years. 20 children of the same population were used as controls. Bone mineral density (B.M.D.) of the lumbar spine (L2-L4) was measured by Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (D.E.X.A.)
RESULTS
Bone mineral density did not reveal significant statistical difference between the study and control group. (Table I)
B.M.D. g/cm2
Patients n=12 Controls n=20
0,802±0,225 0,832±0,209 p>0,05
CONCLUSION
Children with asthma who had been on a daily I.G.S. dosage of 500-800 micrograms for 3 to 5 years had normal B.M.D. values as their healthy controls. Long term longitudinal studies are needed to investigate whether these children attain a normal peak bone mass.