Source: Lancet  |  Posted 9 years ago

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease frequently do not participate in structured programs with modern guidelines to monitor for the high incidence of osteopenia and osteoporosis associated with the condition, Austrian clinicians have found.

Specialists at the First Department of Medicine/Gastroenterology, General Hospital, Wels, evaluated, in a routine clinical setting, examinations and prevention and treatment of osteoporosis among patients with inflammatory bowel disorder (IBD).

The study cohort was made up 154 consecutive patients with IBD, referred to two gastroenterologic units for scheduled follow-up examinations. Among the 91 men and 63 women, 36 patients had ulcerative colitis, 115 had Crohn's disease, and 3 had indeterminate colitis. The patients were evaluated for any previous bone densitometry, as well as any prophylactic or therapeutic interventions among those who had low bone mineral density.

The clinicians found that only 38 of the patients (25 percent) had had measurements made of their bone mineral density (which was abnormally low in 27 patients or 71 percent). Among this group, 20 had osteopenia and 7 had osteoporosis.

Among a subgroup of 77 patients on long-term steroid therapy, 30 had been referred to bone densitometry during the course of disease, and 21 were found to have low bone mineral density. Preventive measures were prescribed for 12 patients, amounting to 9 percent of the whole study population. Most of the patients with low bone mineral density were treated with calcium and vitamin D.