Skeletal status assessment by quantitative ultrasound and bone densitometry in children with different renal conditions

SUMMARY: Two methods of skeletal status assessment—quantitative ultrasound (QUS) and densitometry (DXA)—were applied and compared in a group of children with different renal disorders. Skeletal assessments in children with different renal conditions should rather not be based on a single diagnostic tool. Lumbar spine DXA is very effective to reveal disturbances secondary to glucocorticoids, whereas total body DXA and QUS are both better in identification of disturbances related to decreased GFR. INTRODUCTION: The aim of the study was to evaluate the skeletal status in children in different stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD) or treated with glucocorticoids, using either densitometry (DXA) or quantitative ultrasound (QUS) methods. METHODS: Seventy-six subjects (27 girls/49 boys) at the mean age of 11.8 ± 4.0 years were enrolled to the reported study. They were divided into three subgroups: with normal glomerular filtration rate (GFR) but treated with glucocorticoids (GCs, n = 38), with decreased GFR (CKD 2–5, n = 26) and with normal GFR and without any bone-toxic treatment (CKD 1, n = 12). DXA scans were carried out at lumbar spine (LS) and at total body (TB), and quantitative ultrasound (QUS) imaging was done at hand phalanges. QUS results were compared to those obtained from 310 healthy matched controls. RESULTS: The average Z-score for LS-BMD and TB-BMD was below zero in all the study subgroups. Neither were there any significant differences in the mean Z-score for LS among the subgroups. The mean Z-score for TB was significantly the lowest in the CKD 2–5 subgroup. The percentage of subjects with TB Z-score ≤ − 2.0 was the highest in the CKD 2–5 subgroup (69.2%), whereas the percentage of subjects with LS Z-score ≤ − 2.0 was the highest in the GC subgroup (23.7%). QUS results in CKD 2–5 were significantly lower than those in the controls, whereas the results, obtained in GC and CKD 1 subgroups, were similar to those in healthy subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Skeletal status assessment in children and adolescents with different renal conditions should not be based on single diagnostic approach. DXA scanning, performed at lumbar spine, is potentially more appropriate to reveal disturbances secondary to long-term GC therapy, whereas TB-DXA is highly effective in the identification of skeletal disturbances related to decreased kidney function. QUS at hand phalanges seems to be a useful diagnostic means in CKD with diminished GFR but insufficient to detect GC-related disturbances.