Osteomalacia Starving

Osteomallosis of the hungry (lat. ostēomalacia famelica), or osteodystrophy, formerly also known as kerotic osteodystrophy, is a severe skeletal disease that develops due to prolonged malnutrition and occurs only in those people who consume food insufficient for normal metabolism.

The disease develops mainly in conditions of acute malnutrition (when the daily diet contains less than 1200 calories and 75 protein). Belongs to the group of nutritional dystrophies. When it occurs, a partial loss of bone mineralization is observed: the calcium content in the bones decreases, areas of cystic degeneration appear on the cranial ends of long tubular bones - ribs, cervical vertebrae, end sections of the femur and tibia.

Initial changes in the cranial end of the femur consist of periastinal thickening of trabeculae, coarse calcification, growths and hyperosia on the metaphyseal line and coarse linear calcified edema along the medullary canal. These changes are initially not of a visible focal nature and are revealed only on an x-ray. Following this, foci of cystic restructuring of the bone structure appear: hyperosia, areas of radial calcification located