Abstract

Endemic skeletal fluorosis is described in 6 children aged 11 or over. Four cases were crippled with severe deformities in the spine, hips, and knees. All showed positive phosphorus, magnesium, and nitrogen balances and excessively positive calcium balances. The skeletal x-rays, histology, and chemical composition of the bones revealed diagnostic changes in each case.

• Related Studies :

  • Fluoridation and bone disease in renal patients

    About the Authors: William J Johnson, director of the Mayo Artificial Kidney Center and professor of medicine with the Division of Nephrology at the Mayo Clinic, has been involved in the study of calcium and phosphorus metabolism and renal osteodystrophy, potassium metabolism, and uremic neuropathy. He is past chairman of the Minnesota

  • Bone fluoride concentrations of eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus) resident near an aluminium smelter in south-eastern Australia.

    Lesions of skeletal and dental fluorosis have been described recently in eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus). The present study further examined the epidemiology of skeletal fluorosis in this species. Bone fluoride concentrations were obtained from a range of skeletal sites of animals from a high (Portland Aluminium) and a low

  • Skeletal fluorosis causing high cervical myelopathy

    Skeletal fluorosis is endemic in some parts of the world and is the result of life-long ingestion of high amounts of fluoride in drinking water. Its clinical presentation is characterized mostly by bone and dental changes with later ossification of many ligaments and interosseous membranes. We present a rare case of high cervical myelopathy

  • Skeletal fluorosis due to excessive tea drinking

    A 47-year-old woman was referred for bone pain and abnormal findings on radiography. The patient reported that for the past 17 years, she has habitually consumed a pitcher of tea made from 100 to 150 tea bags daily (estimated fluoride intake, >20 mg per day). She reported a 5-year history

  • Dorsal spondylolisthesis secondary to chronic fluoride intoxication: one case report

    Fluorosis is a disease caused by an excess of fluoride in the water, it is endemic in many parts of India,Afghanistan; Irak, Iran and North Africa. Fluoride is retained in the bones and induces hardening of all the bones, including the spine, hypertrophy of the joints and bones is seen,

• Related FAN Content :

  • "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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • X-Ray Diagnosis of Skeletal Fluorosis

    In 1937, Kaj Roholm published his seminal study Fluorine Intoxication in which he described three phases of bone changes that occur in skeletal fluorosis. (See below). These three phases, which are detectable by x-ray, have been widely used as a diagnostic guide for detecting the disease. They describe an osteosclerotic bone disease that develops first in the axial skeleton (the spine, pelvis, and ribs), and ultimately results in extensive calcification of ligaments and cartilage, as well as bony outgrowths such as osteophytes and exostoses. Subsequent research has found, however, that x-rays provide a very crude measure for diagnosing fluorosis since the disease can cause symptoms and effects (e.g., osteoarthritis) before, and in the absence of, radiologicaly detectable osteosclerosis in the spine.

  • Fluoride & Arthritis

    The doses that American adults now routinely ingest overlap the doses that may cause chronic joint pain.