Research article

Osteoporosis in Canadian adult cystic fibrosis patients: A descriptive study

Christine Brenckmann^1* , Alexandra Papaioannou^2* , Andreas Freitag³ , Rosamund Hennessey⁴ , Suzanne Hansen⁵ , George Ioannidis^6* , Colin Webber^7* and Jonathan Adachi^8*

¹  Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, (B3H 4H7), Canada

²  Department of Medicine, Hamilton Health Sciences, Hamilton, (L8N 3Z5), Canada

³  Adult Cystic Fibrosis Clinic, Hamilton Health Sciences – McMaster University Medical Centre, Hamilton, (L8N 3Z5), Canada

⁴  Cystic Fibrosis Clinic, Hamilton Health Sciences – McMaster University Medical Centre, Hamilton, (L8N 3Z5), Canada

⁵  Hamilton Health Sciences – McMaster University Medical Centre, Hamilton, (L8N 3Z5), Canada

⁶  Charlton Medical Centre, Hamilton, (L8N 1Y2), Canada

⁷  Department of Nuclear Medicine, Hamilton Health Sciences, Hamilton, (L8N 3Z5), Canada

⁸  Department of Medicine, St. Joseph's Hospital, McMaster University, Hamilton, (L8N 4A6), Canada

author email corresponding author email* Contributed equally

BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2003, 4:13doi:10.1186/1471-2474-4-13

Published:	24 June 2003

Abstract

Background

Cystic fibrosis is the most common fatal autosomal recessive genetic disease in the Caucasian population. Osteoporosis is increasingly being recognised as an important complication in people with cystic fibrosis.

Methods

A descriptive study of adult cystic fibrosis patients receiving care at a Canadian tertiary care hospital was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of osteoporosis, the prevalence of non-vertebral fractures, and the change in bone mineral density during the course of a year. Data on bone mineral density were obtained for 40 adult cystic fibrosis patients by reviewing dual x-ray absorptiometry scans taken at baseline (when annual scans became standard clinical practice) and one year prior to baseline. Data on prevalent fractures were obtained by reviewing all available patient charts. Clinical and laboratory data were collected from an existing clinic database.

Results

Over half of the 40 patients had reduced T- and Z-scores at baseline. For the 27 patients who had data available one year prior to baseline, total hip and lumbar spine bone mineral density had decreased by 3.04% and 0.86% after one year while total body bone mineral density had not changed significantly. Four prior non-vertebral fractures were reported in three patients (1,146 patient-years).

Conclusion

This study confirms that osteoporosis is a significant problem in adult cystic fibrosis patients, and constitutes the first published evidence of cystic fibrosis bone disease in Canadians.