Interventional effects of alpha D3 on related bone metabolism indexes of children with knee pain at night

Zhihong PAN; Kangle ZHANG; Dechang LIU; Guoping CAI

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

It is often seen in clinical practice that children, aged3-15 years, suffer from knee pain of unknown cause at night, which occurs frequently. Most of them can be called "pain of growth".

OBJECTIVE:

To analyze the related factors of knee pain in adolescents and observe the interventional effect of alpha-D3 (α-D3).

DESIGN:

Case control analysis, self-control analysis

SETTING:

Department of Orthopaedics, Jinshan Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Fudan University

PARTICIPANTS:

We admitted 22 children outpatients, aged 3 to 15years, who suffered from recurrent attack of knee pain of unknown reasons and received treatment in Jinshan Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Fudan University from June 1998 to August 2002, servingas group A. Another 20children outpatients of fracture recovered for half a year were recruited simultaneously, serving as Group B (control group).

METHODS:

Group A adopted the therapy of α- D3 of 0.25 μg taken orally once everyday for successive 7 days then stopped to observe the symptoms for the next three weeks. Four weeks was one therapeutic course.If the pains were still alive or reoccurred, another therapy period was needed until they vanished. The contents of bone gla protein (BGP), blood calcium (Ca2+), blood phosphorus (P3+), blood magnesium (Mg2+), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and bone mineral density (BMD) of patients were detected between Group A and Group B. GBP index and change of pain in knee at night was observed with α-D3 before therapy and 1,3 and 6months after therapy. After one therapy period, the levels of blood Ca2+, P3+,Mg2+, ALP, BGP, CT, urine and X-ray of knees were detected again, so was BMD after 6 months.MAIN OUTCOME

MEASURES:

① Blood Ca2+, P3+, Mg2+, ALP contents of children patients were detected before and after therapy . ② In the Group A, content of BGP was detected before and 1,3 and 6 months after therapy, and BMD before and 6 months after therapy; The above indexes were detected 6 months and one year after bone fracture healing in the control group. ③ Therapeutic effect of α-D3.

RESULTS:

All the 42 patients entered the stage of result analysis. ① The levels of blood Ca2+, P3+, Mg2+, ALP of patients who suffered pain in knee were all normal before and after therapy . ②BGP content of patients in the control group was significantly lower 1 year after bone fracture healing than 6 months after bone fracture healing [(7.06±0.74), (7.44±1.16)μg/L,P ＜ 0.01]; BGP content of patients in Group A was 15.98 μg/L before therapy , which was significantly higher than that in the control group .BGP content was (12.12±2.2), (10.6±81.31), (7.60±0.95)μg/L , respectively in 1,3 and 6 months after therapy. There was significant difference of BGP content between before and after therapy (P ＜ 0.05). ③ There was no significant difference of BMD of patients between two groups (P ＞ 0.05).④ Symptoms of pain in knee at night improved or disappeared after α-D3therapy, and the therapeutic time was 9 to 83 days.

CONCLUSION:

Although the knee pain of adolescents and children at night can not reach the diagnostic criterion of rachitis, it is still correlated with the deficiency of bone mineralization, in clinical practice, the BGP determination should be used as a means of monitoring the pain of unknown cause. There is significant effect using vitamin D3 in treatment of knee pain of children at night.