Effect of type 1 diabetes mellitus on bone status of children

Background: children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus (dm) show severe impairment of bone metabolism and structure,resulting in higher risk of decreased bone mass and its related complications later in life. objective: to observe the effects of diabetes mellitus on the bone status of children (aged between 9-15 years) by measuring bone remodeling markers and to find out correlation of these parameters with severity of disease itself. methods: this cross sectional study was carried out in department of physiology,university of health sciences,lahore. sixty boys 9-15 years old were selected. the control group consisted of 30 healthy non-diabetic boys. the diabetic group comprised of 30 boys suffering from type 1 diabetes mellitus. bone remodeling markers parathyroid hormone (pth),insulin like growth factor-1 (igf-1),insulin like growth factor binding protein-3 (igfbp-3) were determined by elisa. hba1c values were determined by affinity liquid chromatography. bone mineral density ( z-score) was measured with bone profiler. results: difference of level of igf-1,igfbp-3 and bone mineral density (z-score) in both groups were found to be statistically non-significant. however serum parathyroid hormone levels were significantly lower (p<0.05) in diabetic boys as compared to non-diabetic controls. correlations of parameters with levels of hba 1c and bone mineral density were found to be non-significant. conclusion: type 1 diabetes mellitus does not significantly affect bone mineral density and serum levels of igf-1 and igfbp-3. however diabetes mellitus results significantly lower levels of parathyroid hormone showing that diabetic children have less bone turn over.