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Down syndrome associated with increased radius and tibia fragility
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Adolescents with Down syndrome are at higher risk of fractures. In this study, researchers found these individuals either have reduced resistance to load bending of bone or greater torsion in the tibia and radius, which increases their fragility.
Researchers from Spain compared 30 adolescents with Down syndrome (DS) with 28 adolescents without disabilities in this study. They used peripheral quantitative CT to measure the proximal and distal radius and tibia for total trabecular and cortical bone mineral content (BMC), volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD), bone strength, and their endosteal and periosteal circumferences.
The investigators compared the groups using the Student’s t test. They found increased vBMD and BMC at the proximal radius and increased total and cortical vBMD at the proximal tibia in the DS group, based on the study abstract. By comparison, the other group had a greater total and trabecular area of the distal radius, increased total, cortical and trabecular BMC and area at the distal tibia, and higher periosteal and endosteal circumference and bone strength.
"From these results, it can be believed that even with higher vBMD in determined skeletal sites, adolescents with DS are at higher risk of suffering bone fractures due to an increased fragility by lower resistance to load bending or torsion,” the authors wrote.
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