https://pediatrics.medresearch.in/index.php/ijpr <p><em><strong>ISSN: <a href="https://portal.issn.org/resource/ISSN/2349-3267" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2349-3267 (Online)</a>, <a href="https://portal.issn.org/resource/ISSN/2349-5499" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2349-5499 (Print)</a></strong></em></p> Siddharth Health Research and Social Welfare Society en-US Pediatric Review: International Journal of Pediatric Research 2349-5499 https://pediatrics.medresearch.in/index.php/ijpr/article/view/774 <p><strong>Background: </strong>In thalassemic patients, bone disease is an important cause of morbidity. Patients with transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT) are susceptible to osteopenia and osteoporosis, the mechanism being multi-factorial. The present study was undertaken to study the prevalence of osteopenia and osteoporosis in TDT patients and describe its correlation with biochemical, hematological profile.<strong> Method:</strong> A total of 84 patients with TDT on regular PRC transfusion and iron chelation therapy aged between 5-18years were enrolled in the study. Bone mineral densities (BMD) was measured by DXA scan (DXA spine/whole body) and categorized into normal, osteopenia and osteoporosis based on WHO grading system.<strong> Results: </strong>Out of 84 subjects, 57.1% had low BMD with 38(45.2%) having osteopenia and 10(11.9%) of them having osteoporosis. The prevalence of osteoporosis was found to be more by DXA Spine than DXA whole body which was found to be statistically significant (P=0.043). A high prevalence of hypoparathyroidism, hypocalcemia, hypovitaminosis D and increased serum phosphorous levels were noted among TDT patients with low BMD. Iron overload in Myocardium by T2*MRI also showed statistically significant association with low BMD as determined by DXA Spine. <strong>Conclusion: </strong>Low bone mass is one of the most prevalent complications among TDT patients. Osteoporosis is a progressive disease with multifactorial etiology. Iron overload status by T2* Cardiac MRI may be used as an early indicator for predicting Osteoporosis along with T-scores from DXA spine for early diagnosis and interventions. Further longitudinal prospective studies are needed to better understand the etiopathogenesis of bone disease in these patients.</p> Darshan Hegde Radha Ghildiyal Sujata Sharma Sadhana Zope Manavi K M Manjunath Ramaswamy Copyright (c) 2024 Author (s). Published by Siddharth Health Research and Social Welfare Society https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2024-11-29 2024-11-29 11 4