Bone biopsies and serum vitamin-D levels in patients with hip fracture

Abstract

To assess the correlation between osteoid and vitamin D in patients with a proximal femoral fracture, bone biopsies of the fracture site and the iliac crest were studied; and vitamin-D levels were measured in fasting blood taken on the day of admission. No osteomalacia was found at either site in any of the 95 patients investigated. In 65/95 patients, levels of 25-hydroxy-vitamui D (25-OHD) and 24, 25-dihydroxy-vitamin D(24, 25 -OH₂D) were within the normal range, whereas 30/95 patients were deficient. Because there was no correlation between the amount of osteoid and vitamin-D metabolites in our patients, we concluded that osteomalacia was not a contributory factor in the pathogenesis of the hip fracture.