title: Alterations of serum osteocalcin levels in patients with Legg-Calvé-Perthes.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease (LCPD) is a paediatric form of osteonecrosis that ultimately heals but will cause femoral head and acetabular deformities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the early serum measurement of osteocalcin in children with femoral head necrosis compared with that of healthy children.
  
  
  METHODS
  20 patients with LCPD (4 girls and 16 boys) and 20 healthy volunteers (5 girls and 15 boys) were enrolled. All patients did not have additional treatment. Blood samples were obtained from all patients preoperatively in the morning. All cases had hip radiographs. The serum levels of osteocalcin comparisons between the LCPD patients and the healthy volunteers were performed using Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The Spearman rank correlation was used to assess correlation between LCPD grade and serum osteocalcin levels. Significance was set at p = 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 20 patients with LCPD (72.75 ± 24.92 ng/ml) had significantly higher serum osteocalcin levels compared with the healthy group (16.80 ± 4.04 ng/ml) (p<0.01). Serum osteocalcin levels of different LCPD grades were significantly different (Spearman's p = 0.540, p = 0.014).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We observed a significant correlation between serum osteocalcin levels and LCPD. These results may be meaningful in clinical practice and to future studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Shaanxi Provincial People's Hospital, Xi'an - China.
authors.forename: Wen-Bo
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology, Shaanxi Provincial Cancer Hospital, Xi'an - China.
authors.forename: Sha-Jie
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Dang
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Shaanxi Provincial People's Hospital, Xi'an - China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Shaanxi Provincial People's Hospital, Xi'an - China.
authors.forename: Zong-Zhi
authors.initials: ZZ
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007873:Legg-Calve-Perthes Disease / Q000097:blood* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D015675:Osteocalcin / Q000097:blood*; D012016:Reference Values; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012737:Sex Factors; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D015675:Osteocalcin