Diabetic osteopenia in central Japan.

A large scale study of diabetic osteopenia was conducted in central Japan. The degree of bone mass loss was measured in 1267 diabetic patients and 646 control subjects. Based on six indices obtained by microdensitometry, the bone mass of 21.1% of the diabetic patients was found to be markedly decreased and that of 8.2% was found to be severely decreased, while only 7.9% of the control group showed bone mass loss. The prevalence of diabetic osteopenia in female patients was significantly higher than in males, but a positive correlation between the degree of bone mass loss and age was observed in both the male and female patients. Patients requiring oral agents or insulin had significantly more bone mass loss than those on dietary therapy alone.