Bone Mineral Density, Osteoporosis Prevalence and Influential Factors in Osteogenesis in Patients with Beta Thalassemia Major: A Cross-Sectional Study

Osteoporosis and osteopenia considered as severe problems in Beta thalassemia major (BTM) that can lead to bone fractures. We aimed to investigate bone mineral density status and the laboratory parameters related to bone metabolism in BTM patients and compare the statically differences between the mentioned parameters in the patients with or without bone fractures.

The results of laboratory parameters including; Hemoglobin (Hb), Calcium (Ca), Vitamin D (Vit D), Phosphorus (P), Magnesium (Mg), Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP), Ferritin (FER), Serum Iron (SFe), Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH), T3, T4 and Parathyroid Hormone (PTH), and BMD (by using Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) method) were investigated in 143 BTM patients from thalassemia center of Dezful University of Medical Sciences in 2023.

Seventy-two women and 71 men with confirmed BTM diagnosis with age range (32.4 ± 9.7) were entered in the study. Laboratory parameters including TSH, T3, T4, ALP, FER 247) and SFe showed a significant difference between fracture and non-fracture groups respectively (P≤0.05). In this study, Z-Score between -1.1 and -2.4 was considered osteopenia, and below -2.5 was osteoporosis. Among the studied patients 36.6%, 39.1% and 24.2% had normal bone density, osteopenia and had osteoporosis respectively.

Osteopenia and osteoporosis had a high frequency among the studied patients that can prone them to bone fractures. Continuous examinations of laboratory tests, especially T3, T4, TSH, FER, SFE, can be helpful for faster diagnosis and therapeutic interventions to prevent the occurrence of osteopenia and pathological fractures.