Children with cerebral palsy (CP) who cannot walk seem more prone to have low bone density than ambulatory ones and respectively, walking non-neurologic (scoliosis) patients, of the same age category. Yet, such relationships may be more complex; therefore we aimed to perform a preliminary analysis of them.

We evaluated 58 children, 11–18 years old, divided in 3 groups: non-ambulatory CP (15), ambulatory CP (21) and with scoliosis (22) in the NRNCCNRC. To discriminate ambulation/non-ambulation capability in patients within this study we used a Functional Ambulation Categories inspired paradigm: non-ambulatory patients assimilated to 0 score and the ambulatory children would have achieved either independent or in different degrees of personal and/or device assisted, gait. Bone paraclinic parameters assessed: DEXA (Z-Scores), total serum Calcium and 25-OH vitamin D. Descriptive statistical analysis, ANOVA, medians test and Chi² tests, were performed using SPSS v.24.

Regarding DEXA, concerning Z-Scores distribution, the 3 diagnosis groups differed both in averages and in medians, respectively values of low bone density showed significant differences only between the scoliosis and the non-ambulatory CP groups (more cases in the latter, P=0.004). For total serum calcium and 25-OH vitamin D concentrations there were not distribution differences between the diagnosis groups.

As for total serum calcium, most of our patients had normal values corresponding to their age, except:

–4 with hypocalcaemia (1 with scoliosis, 3 ambulatory CP);

–2 with hypercalcaemia (1 with scoliosis and 1 non-ambulatory CP).

For 25-OH vitamin D serum concentrations, around 60% of the patients were deficient in each group (not sufficient available data to draw genuine statistical objectifications of differences in between).

DEXA findings confirm significant differences between non-ambulatory CP children and ambulatory, and scoliosis ones; for the other paraclinic parameters larger groups are needed for enhanced statistical power.