Bone measures in HIV-1 infected children and adolescents: disparity between quantitative computed tomography and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry measurements

Investigators have found that dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) of areal bone mineral density (BMD) values in HIV-1 infected children and adolescents are reduced. Volumetric bone density (BD) measured by quantitative computed tomography (CT) in this population has not been studied. This study was designed to evaluate bone measurements in HIV-1 infected children and adolescents using DXA and CT. Fifty-eight children and adolescents (32 females and 26 males with a mean age ± SD of 12.0±3.9 years, age range 5.0–19.4 years) with perinatally acquired HIV-1 infection underwent simultaneous bone area and density evaluation by DXA and CT. Height and weight measurements as well as pubertal assessment were performed on the same day. All but four subjects were receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Subjects were matched with healthy children and adolescents for age, gender, and ethnicity. HIV-1 infected children were significantly shorter ( P <0.001), lighter ( P <0.005), and had delayed puberty ( P <0.001) compared to controls. Using DXA, HIV-1 infected subjects had significantly less bone area ( P <0.001), bone mineral content (BMC) ( P <0.005), and BMD ( P <0.05) at the vertebral level compared to controls. In addition, bone area ( P <0.001), BMC ( P <0.001), and BMD ( P <0.005) of the whole body were also reduced relative to controls. In contrast, using CT, HIV-1 infected subjects had similar vertebral BD compared to controls, but smaller vertebral height and cross-sectional area (CSA) ( P =0.01 and P <0.005, respectively). DXA Z-scores provided values significantly lower than CT Z-scores in the HIV-1 infected population ( P <0.01). After accounting for weight and vertebral height, stepwise multiple regression demonstrated that the prediction of CT BD values of L1 to L3 from DXA values of these vertebrae was significantly improved. HIV-1 infected children and adolescents have lower vertebral and whole body BMC and BMD DXA measures. In contrast, vertebral BD measurements by CT are normal. The lower bone measurements were primarily due to the decreased bone and body size of the HIV-1 subjects.This work was presented in part at the Pediatric Academic Society Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California, 1–4 May 2004.