Bone loss and steady state after spinal cord injury: a cross-sectional study using pQCT.

Ninety-nine motor complete SCI subjects with a duration of paralysis of between 2 months and 50 years were included in the study. Twenty-seven were tetraplegics and 72 paraplegics, 89 had a spastic and 10 a flaccid paralysis. Distal epiphyses and mid-shafts of the femur, tibia, and radius were measured by peripheral quantitative computed tomography. The same measurements were performed in a reference group of 18 healthy able-bodied subjects of the same age range.