Bone Abstracts

Recent evidence supports a strong influence of early life movement on infant bone strength. However, it is not known whether early motor development also influences bone strength in later life. Therefore, we examined relationships between locomotor score (using components of the Denver Developmental Screening Test) at 18 months, and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) Co-ordination Test (ACT) score at 7 years, and bone outcomes as measured at age 17 ye...

Assessment of metaphyseal bone growth in children by peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) is limited by use of a thin (2.3 mm) 2D slice to represent the ~20 mm metaphyseal region within which there is substantial local variation in bone properties (Marjanovic et al., 2009). In addition, scan positioning is performed by manual visual growth plate identification from which a region located proximal to the growth plate at 4% of tibia leng...

Animal studies suggest that fetal movements are key to healthy skeletal development, but evidence in humans is limited. Breech presentation occurs in 3% of term births and is associated with reduced fetal movement and higher incidence of hip dysplasias, but more general effects on bone development have not been explored.Offspring whole body bone outcomes were measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) at mean(SD) 6(5) days after birth in 993 i...

Hip development is influenced by mechanical loading during fetal movement by joint and reaction forces equivalent to several times bodyweight. These forces increase with fetal size and gestation length, and are lower in oligohydramnios and breech presentation which are both risk factors for developmental hip disorders. However, associations between indicators of prenatal mechanical loading and hip shape in later life remain unexplored. We therefore examined associations betwee...