Abstract:
Background and Objective: Bone remodeling includes balanced bone formation and resorption and low bone mass density (BMD) occurs when there is a higher rate of resorption. Osteoporosis is a chronic asymptomatic disease with bone fragility that increases an impending risk of bone fracture caused by minor trauma. Calcium and vitamin D are critical for bone mineralization and health. Bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and osteocalcin (OC) are markers of bone formation. This study was conducted to test the utility of serological parameters as reliable markers in the diagnosis of low BMD compared with BMD measurements. Materials and Methods: In this study 715 Saudi students of Umm Al-Qura University aged 19-22 years were assessed for serum levels of calcium, vitamin D, ALP and OC. The BMD was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) and the results were statistically analyzed. Results: We found that 26.57% of the studied cases had low BMD and showed significantly higher levels of serum calcium, bone-specific ALP and OC with significantly lower serum levels of vitamin D compared to control cases. There was no correlation between serum markers and BMD measurements in cases of low BMD. Conclusion: Serum markers may be useful for screening and predicting people who are at risk of developing BMD as well as for assessing responses to osteoporosis therapy. Low BMD is better diagnosed by a combination of serum markers and measurements of BMD.
| ! | A Corrigendum for this article has been published at 10.3923/pjn.2021.76.76. |