ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To describe bone mineral density (BMD) patterns by densitometry in adult African American (AA) men with sickle cell disease (SCD) who are vitamin D deficient (Vit DD). INCLUSION/EXCLUSION CRITERIA: All SCD phenotypes were eligible. Those with chronic renal failure or hyperparathyroidism were excluded. DATA COLLECTION: Demographics, body mass index and SCD genotype. LABORATORY: Albumin, ferritin, calcium, phosphorus, 25-hydroxy vitamin D and intact-parathyroid hormone were obtained. BMD, T and Z scores: T scores at the lumbar spine were used to categorize normal, osteopenia and osteoporosis based on World Health Organization criteria. STATISTICAL ANALYSES: Mean ± standard deviation was used to describe continuous data, whereas categorical data were described by counts and percentages. The χ test was used to analyze categorical variables; Student's t test or one-way analysis of variance, when appropriate, was used to compare continuous variables. Rates of osteopenia-osteoporosis were determined, and the parameter with 95% confidence interval (CI) of a proportion was constructed. All tests were 2-sided, and a P ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. We used StatView Version 5.01 (SAS institute Inc, Cary, NC) for the statistical analysis. RESULTS: Seventy-eight AA men with SCD disease and Vit DD were enrolled in this study. We found that 42% of the men studied had low-BMD (osteopenia or osteoporosis) using T scores at the lumbar spine to establish densitometry strata. The prevalence of osteoporosis was 14%. CONCLUSIONS: A large proportion of adult AA men with SCD and Vit DD showed low BMD.
