Abstract

Objective: To understand the relationship between fluorosis and adult osteoarthritis through the investigation of fluorosis-afflicted villages.

Methods: X-ray radiography of right hands was performed on 227 adults over the age of 40 from fluorosis-afflicted villages, and adult osteoarthritis was diagnosed using accumulated scores based on the obtained results.

Results: The identification rate of osteoarthritis in fluorosis-afflicted regions was 59.03%, and the mean accumulated score was 3.85, both significantly higher than those for the control population (identification rate was 23.6%, mean accumulated score was 0.72); patients with osteoarthritis caused by fluorosis accounted for a considerable portion of the osteoarthritis population.

Conclusions: Fluorosis may lead to osteoarthritis, and also acts as a confounding factor of adult Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) in a portion of patients.

• Related Studies :

  • Fluorosis and periostitis deformans as complications of prolonged voriconazole treatment

    We describe a case of development of painful periostitis deformans in a 39-year-old woman who was receiving long-term voriconazole treatment for Aspergillus infection as a complication of orthotopic liver transplant. Measurement of fluoride levels strongly supports fluorosis to be the mechanism of the voriconazole-induced periostitis deformans and supports the concept

  • Comparison of rheumatoid (ankylosing) spondylitis and crippling fluorosis

    (1) Fluoride concentrations were determined for autopsy samples of rib, sacrum, ilium, vertebra, adhering soft tissue, and rib marrow from a patient suffering from rheumatoid (ankylosing) spondylitis of 10 years’ duration. The fluoride concentrations were not increased above normal levels. In this case, the increased bone density seen in this

  • Long-term fluoride therapy of postmenopausal osteoporosis

    The benefit of sodium fluoride (NaF) in the therapy of osteoporosis is still controversial. For 3 years we monitored patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis subjected to a continuous treatment with 80 mg NaF/day and patients without fluoride treatment. Every 3 months peripheral total and trabecular bone densities were evaluated with high-precision

  • Skeletal fluorosis in relation to drinking water, nutritional status and living habits in rural areas of Maharashtra, India

    The present study was carried out during May 2010 to December 2011 in three villages which were randomly selected from Warora tehsil of Chandrapur district which is one of the endemic district of Maharashtra. . . . All the presently available ground water samples were collected and the mean fluoride concentration

  • Exacerbation of rheumatoid arthritis by sodium fluoride treatment of osteoporosis

    Recent studies have suggested that sodium fluoride therapy may be an effective treatment for vertebral osteoporosis. Unfortunately, the high frequency of side effects may limit the use of this treatment modality. This report documents the repeated exacerbation of rheumatoid arthritis on three occasions after the initiation of sodium fluoride therapy. This apparent complication of

• Related FAN Content :

  • Skeletal Fluorosis: The Misdiagnosis Problem

    It is a virtual certainty that there are individuals in the general population unknowingly suffering from some form of skeletal fluorosis as a result of a doctor's failure to consider fluoride as a cause of their symptoms. Proof that this is the case can be found in the following case reports of skeletal fluorosis written by doctors in the U.S. and other western countries. As can be seen, a consistent feature of these reports is that fluorosis patients--even those with crippling skeletal fluorosis--are misdiagnosed for years by multiple teams of doctors who routinely fail to consider fluoride as a possible cause of their disease.

  • Fluoride & Osteoarthritis

    While the osteoarthritic effects that occurred from fluoride exposure were once considered to be limited to those with skeletal fluorosis, recent research shows that fluoride can cause osteoarthritis in the absence of traditionally defined fluorosis. Conventional methods used for detecting skeletal fluorosis, therefore, will fail to detect the full range of people suffering from fluoride-induced osteoarthritis.

  • "Pre-Skeletal" Fluorosis

    As demonstrated by the studies below, skeletal fluorosis may produce adverse symptoms, including arthritic pains, clinical osteoarthritis, gastrointestinal disturbances, and bone fragility, before the classic bone change of fluorosis (i.e., osteosclerosis in the spine and pelvis) is detectable by x-ray. Relying on x-rays, therefore, to diagnosis skeletal fluorosis will invariably fail to protect those individuals who are suffering from the pre-skeletal phase of the disease. Moreover, some individuals with clinical skeletal fluorosis will not develop an increase in bone density, let alone osteosclerosis, of the spine. Thus, relying on unusual increases in spinal bone density will under-detect the rate of skeletal fluoride poisoning in a population.