ABSTRACT
Objective. To observe the influence of prednisolone treatment on bone mineral density (BMD) in children with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome. Methods. Duel-energy X-ray absorptiometry of lumbar spine (L1-L4) was performed on 40 patients (18 first episode and 22 relapsers) of steroid sensitive idiopathic nephrotic syndrome. Results. Patients of first episode and relapsers had comparable values of mean age, weight, height, body mass index, serum calcium, phosphate, spine area, bone mineral content (BMC) and BMD. Relapsing nephrotic syndrome patients received significantly higher mean total cumulative dose of prednisolone in comparison to first episode (p<0.001). The BMD Z-scores were normal in 39 of 40 (97.5%) patients. On regression analysis, it was found that both BMC and BMD did not correlate with cumulative dose of prednisolone, when other co-variants such as age, weight, height and spine area were adjusted. Conclusion. Bone mineral density in steroid sensitive nephrotic syndrome is unaffected by cumulative dose of prednisolone therapy both in first episode as well as relapser group of patients.