Fax +41 61 306 12 34 E-Mail karger@karger.ch www.karger.com Clinical Investigations Respiration 2008;75:432–436 DOI: 10.1159/000105386 Bone Mineral Density in Children with Non-Cystic Fibrosis Bronchiectasis Tulay Guran a Serap Turan a Bulent Karadag b Refika Ersu b Fazilet Karakoc b Abdullah Bereket a Elif Dagli b Divisions of Pediatric a Endocrinology and b Pulmonology, Departments of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey patient and control groups (tibia z-scores: –0.1 8 0.9 vs. –0.8 8 0.8 and radius z-scores –1.3 8 1.4 vs. –1.0 8 0.9 in bron- chiectasis patients and controls, respectively, p 1 0.05). How- ever, more children with non-CF bronchiectasis had osteo- penia (z-scores between –1 and –2 SD) and osteoporosis (z-score ^ 2 SD) compared to the control group (62 vs. 30%, p = 0.019). There was a significant correlation between age and radius z-scores (r = –0.365, p = 0.04). There was no cor- relation between BMD and severity of lung illness, calcium intake or cumulative steroid doses. Conclusion: Osteopenia is more common in children with non-CF bronchiectasis compared to controls and the risk of osteoporosis and osteo- penia increases with age. Copyright © 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel Introduction Bronchiectasis is a chronic disease characterized by productive cough, dyspnea and irreversible dilation of the airways. Repeated infectious exacerbations requiring an- tibiotic treatment and high mortality are the other im- portant features of the disease. Etiologic factors of bron- chiectasis are: infections (pneumonia, tuberculosis and HIV), foreign body aspiration, cystic fibrosis (CF), im- munodeficiency, ciliary dyskinesia and anatomic anoma- lies [1] . Bronchiectasis is relatively common in developing countries and in populations with low socioeconomic sta- Key Words Bone mineral density  Bronchiectasis  Quantitative ultrasound  Speed of sound Abstract Background: Bronchiectasis presents as a common sequela of several chronic pulmonary diseases. Bone mineral density (BMD) is generally decreased in children with cystic fibrosis (CF). Although children with non-CF bronchiectasis have similar risk factors for osteopenia/osteoporosis, data on BMD in this group of patients are lacking. Objective: To evaluate BMD in children with non-CF bronchiectasis. Methods: In this study, we evaluated BMD of the radius and tibia in 32 children (17 girls) with non-CF bronchiectasis and in 23 healthy controls matched for age, sex and pubertal stage by quantitative ultrasound (speed of sound). Daily calcium in- take and pulmonary function tests and data about steroid use were noted. Results: Mean age was 12.5 8 4.6 years. Six children (18%) had moderate-to-severe lung disease (FEV 1 ! 60% predicted). All except 2 children (94%) were receiving inhaled steroids. There was no significant difference in BMD (expressed as z-score) of the radius and tibia between the Received: November 28, 2006 Accepted after revision: April 17, 2007 Published online: July 6, 2007 Dr. Tulay Guran Camlıca Ilke 2 Sitesi No 65, Daire 5 Uskudar Istanbul (Turkey) Tel. +90 216 327 1010 716, Fax +90 216 325 7217, E-Mail tulayguran@yahoo.com © 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel 0025–7931/08/0754–0432$24.50/0 Accessible online at: www.karger.com/res Abbreviations: BMD = Bone mineral density; CF = cystic fibrosis; FEF 25–75% = forced expiratory flow between 25 and 75% of forced vital capacity; FEV 1 = forced expiratory volume in 1 s; QUS = quanti- tative ultrasonography; SOS = speed of sound.