Skeletal status and laboratory investigations in adolescent girls with anorexia nervosa

To our knowledge anorexia nervosa (AN) adversely influences bone density, but whether qualitative characteristics of bone are also affected is not known. For this reason we investigated prospectively the changes in skeletal status in a population of 18 adolescent girls with AN aged 11.5–18.1 years (mean 15.9 ± 1.9 years) using both dual-photon X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and quantitative ultrasound (QUS) measurements, bone turnover markers (osteocalcin, bone alkaline phosphatase – bALP, carboxy-terminal cross-linked telopeptide of type I collagen – ICTP), and laboratory investigations (serum total and ionised calcium, serum phosphate, urine calcium/creatinine ratio, luteinizing hormone – LH, follicle-stimulating hormone – FSH, estradiol). Measurements of bone mineral density at the spine (s-BMD) and total body (TB-BMD) and amplitude-dependent speed of sound (Ad-SOS) of the hand phalanges were performed at baseline, 7.8 ± 2.4 and 19.4 ± 5.6 months of follow-up. The mean values of TB-BMD, s-BMD and Ad-SOS measurements did not change during the period of observation. The mean Z-scores for TB-BMD and Ad-SOS were significantly lower after 19.4 months of observation vs. baseline (− 1.06 ± 1.00 vs. − 0.67 ± 0.98 vs. and − 0.50 ± 0.88 vs. 0.26 ± 1.75, respectively). Z-scores for s-BMD decreased non-significantly (p = 0.08). Among bone turnover markers, we observed a significant increase in bALP and a non-significant increase in osteocalcin serum concentrations which were below normal ranges for age, sex and Tanner stage at baseline. High baseline serum ICTP concentration decreased non-significantly, reaching normal ranges during the observation. We conclude that anorexia nervosa seriously affects skeletal status in adolescent girls. Bone turnover markers analysed together with densitometric parameters suggest that AN influences both bone formation and resorption processes. QUS measurements at hand phalanges may be an appropriate method in the evaluation of skeletal status in patients with AN.