EpidemiologyPaget’s disease of bone: a review of 889 patients
Section snippets
Methods
Notes of 889 patients with diagnosis of Paget’s disease from four centers were reviewed.
Details of patients, their disease including biochemical markers, their treatment course, and their clinical complications were recorded. Serum alkaline phosphatase (sAP) levels were cited as a percentage of the upper limit of normal at the individual laboratory for that assay at the time of the test.
Gender and age at diagnosis
The numbers of male and female patients were very similar (49.1% vs. 50.9%). Male patients presented at a younger age compared with female patients (median age 63.0 years vs. 67.0 years). Of note, 30% of patients presented under the age of 60 years, and over 60% presented under the age of 70 years (Figure 1).
Source of referral
The majority of patients (74.4%) presented with symptoms; 2.4% presented with complications. The remainder presented “by chance,” most probably following a biochemical test for another
Discussion
This review has the advantage of a large number of cases of a condition that most clinicians, even with an interest in the disease, will only see on an infrequent basis. It also involves the experiences of different centers in different parts of the country to provide a broader review of the condition in the UK than has previously been reported.