The anatomical shape of bones and joints is important for their proper function but quantifying this, and detecting pathological variations, is difficult to do. Numerical descriptions would also enable correlations between joint shapes to be explored. Statistical shape modelling (SSM) is a method of image analysis employing pattern recognition statistics to describe and quantify such shapes fro...

Kostmann's syndrome is a congenital disorder that causes an impairment of myeloid differentiation in the bone marrow characterized by severe neutropenia, which can be treated with recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). We present the case of a 13-year-old boy with Kostmann's syndrome who was treated with recombinant human G-CSF from age 3.5 years. His growth and develo...

BACKGROUND It is commonplace for clinicians to measure range of motion (ROM) in the assessment of the lumbar spine. Traditional single 'joint' models afford measuring only a limited number of regions along the spine and may, therefore, over-simplify the description of movement. It remains to be determined if additional, useful information can be gleaned by considering the traditional 'lumbar re...

Background: β-thalassemia major is a hereditary life threatening anemia which requires regular blood transfusion. Clinical symptoms of the disease are growth retardation, pallor, jaundice and skeletal alternations. The variety of bone disease in thalassemia major is manifested by diffuse bone pain or deformity, spontaneous and pathologic fractures and osteopenia or osteoporosis. This study aime...

Extensive osseous adaptations of the lumbar spine, pelvis, hip and femur characterize the emergence of the human bipedal gait with its 'double extension' of the lumbar spine and hip. To accommodate lumbar lordosis, the pelvis was 'compacted', becoming wider and shorter, as compared with the non-human apes. The hip joint acquired a much more extended position, which can be seen in a broader evol...

BACKGROUND Low skeletal muscle mass is associated with deterioration of bone mineral density. Because serum creatinine can serve as a marker of muscle mass, we evaluated the relationship between serum creatinine and bone mineral density in an older population with normal renal function. METHODS Data from a total of 8,648 participants (4,573 men and 4,075 postmenopausal women) aged 45-95 years...

BACKGROUND Bone density measurement with dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry is widely used for fracture risk assessment. Discordance between measurement sites is common, but it is unclear how this affects fracture prediction. METHODS We performed a historical cohort study among 16 505 women 50 years or older at the time of baseline dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry of the spine and hip (mean +/-...

AIMS To evaluate the effect of atorvastatin on bone mass and markers of bone remodeling in patients with acute coronary syndrome depending on the tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha)-308 G/A polymorphism. METHODS Sixty-two patients with acute coronary syndrome (35 males and 27 females), average age 60 +/- 10 years, were included. Patients were given low (10-20 mg) and high doses (40-80 mg) ...

OBJECTIVES Grip strength has been reported to be associated with bone mass locally at the forearm and also at distant skeletal sites, including the spine and hip. Less is known about the association between low grip strength and risk of vertebral fracture. The aim of this study was to examine the association between low grip strength, bone mineral density at the hip and spine, and vertebral fra...

AIMS Osteoporosis and abnormal bone metabolism may prove to be significant factors influencing the outcome of arthroplasty surgery, predisposing to complications of aseptic loosening and peri-prosthetic fracture. We aimed to investigate baseline bone mineral density (BMD) and bone turnover in patients about to undergo arthroplasty of the hip and knee. METHODS We prospectively measured bone mi...