Prospective bone mineral density evaluation in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus

Abstract The bone mineral density (BMD) in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) was evaluated prospectively to assess the course of osteopenia in IDDM. We measured BMD in the lumbar spine, femoral region, and total body calcium in 23 patients aged 21–53 years with IDDM for 2.3 to 20 years using a dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. A second BMD measurement was done after 26.5 ± 4.1 months in all patients. The blood glucose control, insulin dosage, and disease duration were also assessed. Eleven patients had osteopenia (1 Z-score below the mean values of normal gender- and age-matched individuals). These patients had a longer IDDM duration (8.6 ± 5.1 years in osteopenics versus 4.6 ± 3.75 years in non-osteopenics; p = 0.03). The blood glucose control and insulin dosage were not significantly different throughout the study. The mean spinal BMD was higher in the second evaluation in both osteopenics (0.91 ± 0.12 g/cm 2 and 0.96 ± 0.09 g/cm 2 , p = 0.035) and non-osteopenics (1.24 ± 0.15 g/cm 2 and 1.29 ± 0.16 g/cm 2 ; p = 0.02). In the end of the study, however, the osteopenic group persisted with lower subnormal BMD values than the non-osteopenic group ( p