[Assessment of lumbar trabecular bone density by means of single energy quantitative CT in hospital control children and bone metabolic disorders. 1].

We studied the 3rd lumbar vertebral trabecular bone mineral density in 59 cross-sectional pictures of quantitative computed tomography (QCT) with CaCO3 phantom for 28 hospital control children and 30 cases of suspected bone metabolic disorders. The QCT value of bone mineral density of control children showed neither age dependency nor sexual difference before puberty: for males was 221.8 +/- 30.2 mg CaCO3/cm3 (Mean +/- SD) under 4 years, 218.1 +/- 39.7 at 5-9 years and 217.2 +/- 30.9 at 10-15 years; and for females 220.9 +/- 18.3 under 4 years and 240.0 +/- 29.4 at 5-9 years. The QCT values of bone mineral density in bed-ridden patients, children receiving glucocorticoids and children receiving anticonvulsants were significantly lower than that in control children (p less than 0.005). The QCT value of bone mineral density of bed-ridden patients was significantly lower than that of children receiving glucocorticoids and of children receiving anticonvulsants (p less than 0.05, p less than 0.005 respectively). Our study confirmed that single energy quantitative CT was very useful in pediatric clinical application.