LONGITUDINAL CHANGES OF BONE-MINERAL CONTENT WITH AGE IN PATIENTS WITH CIRRHOSIS OF THE LIVER

Bone disorders are associated with cirrhosis. Knowledge of the natural course of bone changes in cirrhosis could help in decision-making abo ut medical treatment. We carried out one measurement of bone mineral d ensity (BMD) in 184 Japanese patients (98 men and 86 women) with cirrh osis by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Differences in BMD values me ans +/- SD between the 98 cirrhotic men and 283 healthy men of the sam e age reported in another study were not significant, In the 86 cirrho tic women, BMD tended to show a greater decrease with age than in heal thy controls reported elsewhere, Differences in BMD values (means +/- SD) between 622 healthy women reported elsewhere and our patients were not significant for women up to age 60 years, but at 60 years or more , the mean BMD in cirrhotic women (0.692 +/- 0.100) was lower than tha t in healthy women (0.749 +/- 0.101, P < 0.01). In 61 of the 184 patie nts (31 men and 30 women), the bone mineral content (BMC) of lumbar ve rtebrae was measured at least twice, at intervals of 10-72 months. In this longitudinal part of the study, the group mean of estimated annua l change for cirrhotic men was -0.4%, close to that of healthy men (-0 .2%), This mean in cirrhotic women was -2.8%, significantly different from that of healthy women (-1.1% P < 0.05). As expected, cirrhotic wo men were the most likely to lose BMC. and many needed prompt treatment .