Authors: D Rendina F Gianfrancesco G De Filippo D Merlotti T Esposito A Aloia D Benvenuto C L Vivona G Annunziata R Nuti P Strazzullo G Mossetti L Gennari
Publish Date: 2009/12/22
Volume: 33, Issue: 8, Pages: 519-525
Abstract
Background The prevalence of Paget’s disease of bone PDB is unknown in peninsular Southern Italy although an elevated clinical severity of the disease was reported in patients from Campania Aim This study was performed to evaluate the epidemiological and genetic characteristics of PDB in a rural area of Calabria the southernmost region in the Italian peninsula Subjects and methods We examined 1068 consecutive pelvic radiographs of patients older than 40 yr referred for any reason to the “Spinelli” Hospital Belvedere Marittimo from January 1st 2004 to December 31st 2006 In subjects with radiological findings of pelvic PDB a 99mTechnetium methylene diphosphonate bone scan and the sequence analysis of the sequestosome 1 SQSTM1 gene were subsequently performed Results In the examined geographic area the crude radiographic prevalence of pelvic PDB was 074 8/1068 malefemale 53 mean age 716±131 yr whereas the estimated overall prevalence of PDB between 082 and 121 PDB patients from Calabria showed clinical characteristics similar to those reported in patients from Campania The disease was also frequently complicated by osteoarthritis and the right side of the body was more affected than the left The SQSTM1 gene analysis revealed the presence of a novel missense mutation M401V in exon 8 in one subject with a familial and aggressive form of PDB Conclusion The study results confirmed that patients with PDB from rural districts of Southern Italy show an earlier onset and an increased clinical severity of the disease that appears mostly independent from the presence of germinal SQSTM1 mutations
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