Patients with coeliac disease may have osteomalacia or osteoporosis, even in the absence of abdominal symptoms. Little is known about the effects of a gluten-free diet and villous restitution on the bone mineral density in adult patients with coeliac disease. Of the 288 patients with coeliac disease in our unit, 13 (5%) had persistent villous atrophy of the small bowel despite dietary recommendations over at least the previous 4 years. For each of these 13 patients, 1 or 2 controls with coeliac disease, matched for age, gender, menopausal state, and dermatitis herpetiformis, whose intestinal mucosa had normalized at least 4 years earlier, were identified (n = 17). Bone mineral density was measured in the forearm using single-photon absorptiometry and in the femoral neck and trochanter using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Bone mineral density was reduced at all sites in patients with persistent villous atrophy compared with patients responsive to diet and healthy controls. Bone mineral density in patients responsive to diet did not differ from that in healthy controls. Persistent villous atrophy is associated with low bone mineral density, underlining the importance of keeping to a proper diet.

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The data suggest that the cartilage changes after meniscectomy in this animal model are caused by the surgical trauma, subsequent limb misuse, and altered load distribution, and initially associated by a decrease not an increase in bone mineral density of the proximal tibia. Moreover, the cartilage changes progressed without a simultaneous increase of the bone mineral density at corresponding sites.

PurposeData on the prevalence of dyslipidaemia and associated risk factors in HIV-infected patients from sub-Saharan Africa is sparse. We performed a cross-sectional analysis in a cohort of HIV-infected South African adults.MethodsWe studied HIV-infected patients who were either antiretroviral therapy (ART)-naive or receiving non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI)-based or protease inhibitor (PI)-based ART. Evaluation included fasting lipograms, oral glucose tolerance tests and clinical anthropometry. Dyslipidemia was defined using the NCEP ATPIII guidelines.ResultsThe median age of the participants was 34 years (range 19–68 years) and 78% were women. The prevalence of dyslipidemia in 406 ART-naive and 551 participants on ART was 90.0% and 85%, respectively. Low HDL-cholesterol (HDLC) was the most common abnormality [290/406 (71%) ART-naïve and 237/551 (43%) ART- participants]. Participants on ART had higher triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), LDL-cholesterol (LDLC) and HDLC than the ART-naïve group. Severe dyslipidaemia, (LDLC> 4.9 mmol/L or TG >5.0 mmol/L) was present in <5% of participants. In multivariate analyses there were complex associations between age, gender, type and duration of ART and body composition and LDLC, HDLC and TG, which differed between ART-naïve and ART-participants.ConclusionParticipants on ART had higher TG, TC, LDLC and HDLC than those who were ART-naïve but severe lipid abnormalities requiring evaluation and treatment were uncommon.

While autoimmunity accounts for at least half of patients with Addison's disease in South Africa and is associated with HLA DQB1*0201, none of the Black Africans or Asians in this cohort had adrenal autoantibodies. Moreover, 21-hydroxylase autoantibodies were detectable in a higher proportion than adrenocortical autoantibodies, especially in those patients with a long history after disease onset.