BONE MINERALIZATION IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH A MILK ALLERGY

To evaluate the correlation between dietary calcium intake and mineral ization of the immature skeleton 55 children and adolescents aged 5-14 years (mean, 9.5 years) with a positive radioallergosorbent test (RAS T) for serum antibodies to cow's milk protein were evaluated. Bone min eral density (BMD) in the lumbar spine and proximal femurs were measur ed by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. BMD at each site for each subj ect was converted to an age-adjusted Z score based on our own series o f 95 normal pediatric controls. Calcium intake was determined using a detailed food frequency questionnaire administered by a nutritionist d uring a 30-40-min interview. Dietary adjustments to the condition vari ed and resulted in a wide range of calcium intakes. Calcium supplement s were taken by 22% of the subjects and were included in the determina tion of daily calcium intake. The group of 55 subjects was divided int o quartiles based on calcium intake (mean +/- S.E mg calcium/day): Gro up 1, 409 +/- 21, Group 2, 663 +/- 16, Group 3, 950 +/- 32, Group 4, 1 437 +/- 124. Bone density Z scores in the proximal femur serially incr eased across the calcium intake groups (mean +/- S.E.): Group 1, -0.16 +/- 0.31; Group 2, 0.05 +/- 0.33; Group 3, 0.44 +/- 0.24; Group 4, 0. 79 +/- 0.41 (P = 0.03). A similar pattern was found with lumbar spine BMD Z scores: Group 1, -0.16 +/- 0.27; Group 2, 0.10 +/- 0.21; Group 3 , 0.18 +/- 0.20; Group 4, 0.30 +/- 0.25 (P = 0.05). These data add fur ther to the evidence that dietary calcium intake is important for opti mal mineralization of the growing skeleton.