Birmingham epidermolysis severity score and vitamin D status are associated with low BMD in children with epidermolysis bullosa.

What Was Tested

This observational study looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

Bone status impairment represents a complication of generalized forms of EB; thus, the researchers aimed to estimate the prevalence of low bone mass, to examine mineralization differences in various EB subtypes and to identify the most important determinants of bone impairment in children with either generalized or localized EB.

Why It Was Studied

Bone status impairment represents a complication of generalized forms of epidermolysis bullosa (EB); however, the prevalence and the main determinants of this event in localized forms remain poorly defined.

Further longitudinal studies are needed in order to confirm this hypothesis.

Who Took Part

The study group was 20 children.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were children and teenagers, both men and women.

An observational study of 20 children (11 males; mean age ± standard deviation, 11.7 ± 3.9 years) with EB was performed.

How the Study Was Run

Clinical history, physical examination, laboratory studies, X-ray of the left hand and wrist for bone age, and dual energy X-ray absorptiometry scans of the lumbar spine were obtained.

Areal bone mineral density (aBMD Z-scores) and bone mineral apparent density were related to the BEBS score.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Absorptiometry, Photon, Bone Density, Epidermolysis Bullosa, Immobilization, Lumbar Vertebrae, Osteoporosis and Skin.

Author keywords: BEBS score, Bone mineral density, Pediatrics and Vitamin D.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is an observational study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 20 children.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2017 (Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA), a journal based in England.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.