ISMJ

Background: Normal bone structure is formed in childhood and adolescence. Any problem of bone formation at these stages will lead to significant osteoporosis and its complications in adulthood. Genetic factors are the most important factors in skeletal development. This study aimed to evaluate the bone mineral density and it's interfering factors in Iranian girls of Kawar of Fars. Materials and Methods: In this cross sectional study 235 healthy girls of Kawar of Fars aged 9-18 years old participated and they underwent Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) scanning of lumbar spine, femoral neck and total body. The LMS method was applied to calculate smoothed BMC, BMD and BMAD for age related centiles. Results: Maximum accretion of BMC and BMD was at ages of 11 to 13 and according to 3rd, 25th, 50th, 75th and 97th percentile, BMC and BMD of all sites were increasing with a rather fixed rate up to the age of 15 and then after it increased very slowly. Conclusion: This study is the first study for normative data of BMC and BMD of Iranian girls and showed that BMC accretion of these girls was slower, but BMD accretion was greater than the girls of the other parts of the world. Absolute amount of bone mineral content in Iranian girls was lower than Indian, Lebanese and Asian girls of USA. Also weight and puberty were the two most important factors efficacious on BMD of the Iranian girls (of Kawar). Further research to evaluate the evolution of bone mineral density in Iranian children and adolescents is needed to identify the reasons for the significant differences in bone density values between our Iranian population and their Asian counterparts.