Paget’s Disease

Paget’s Disease General Information

When the normal biological process of your bones is affected it is said you have Paget’s Disease or osteitis deformans. The name belongs to an English surgeon who identified it, Sir James Paget. Even after a person reached the full height, the bones keep growing, removing the old tissue with a new one. This chronic disorder stops the process of bone remodeling, when the old bone is replaced with a fresh new bone. So that the new bones are usually weaker and softer, causing severe pain because an old bone breaks before a new one is built and the body generates new bones in a faster process, resulting feeble bones. The bone not only grows slower, but also larger. The results of this process are deformities, arthritis, bone pain and fractures. It affects mainly just one bone, but many cases of numerous affected bones were reported. The majority of the patients present this disorder to the skull, hip, pelvis, back, arms, legs and spine. Paget’s Disease affects various areas of your body that may be or not nearby. The actual causes of this disorder are not known, but it is more common among older persons. Under the age of 45, the cases are very rare. The medical history is very important especially if you have someone in the family with Paget’s Disease and you are over 40 years old. The percentage of affected people is not known exactly, just estimated, but men are more reliable to the disease than women.

Paget’s Disease Symptoms

The symptoms do not manifest all the time and the stages advance slowly, so that many persons may have the disease many years without knowing about it. In this case we say that they have a mild form of Paget’s Disease. But when the symptoms do appear, they may be confusing and the disorder mistaken with other problems. An exact diagnosis is hard to establish until the disease reaches complicated forms. The general health state may be characterized by intense tiredness. A very obvious sign that you have the disease might be represented by a slowly breaking of the bone. The most common manifestation is the bone pain that is felt in any affected bone. The pain may be felt in the areas nearby the harmed bone, along with strange feelings of warmth to the touch. The intensity of the pain may increase over night. If the cartilage of joints suffered a minimum damage, Paget’s Disease may lead to arthritis. If the area affected is the skull, the patient may accuse pressure (if the spine is involved), hearing loss and headaches. In the place where is the thighbone and the pelvis may also occur hip pain. If the stage reaches a high grade of severity, a curvature of spine, a bigger size of the head and bowing of the limb may be easily observed. The feeling of warmth of the affected area is a result of an increased number of blood vessels than normal. Other medical conditions that result from this bone disorder are: heart disease, osteoarthritis and kidney stones.

Paget’s Disease Treatment

It is very hard to discover if you have Paget’s Disease on time because the symptoms appear slow or not at all and their cause is not known, although the medical history of someone’s family is very important in putting a final diagnoses. As in many other diseases, the genetic factor plays a vital role in somebody’s life. Sometimes, the patients do not present any symptoms, the treatment consisting only in monitoring. The examination for Paget’s Disease includes many various tests. Besides the physical examination, a very important method is the X-rays because the appearance of an affected bone has some real differential characteristics. Some specialists prefer a bone scan that shows the exact location and condition of the affection, but to confirm the result, the X-rays are necessary. Another test is the alkaline phosphatase test that can not be that trustful as the other two because the elevated alkaline phosatase level in the blood may be specific for other conditions. The doctors try to give treatments before any major changes occur in the patient’s organism. But a treatment will never cure Paget’s Disease; only just control it and slowing down the symptoms.

A rheumatologist may be consulted by your health care provider because the he is specialized in disorders of the muscles, joints and other parts of the body that are involved dynamically. The rates of growth in the body may be affected by hormonal and metabolic disorders so that the advice of an endocrinologist can be useful in diagnosing and treating Paget’s Disease. A common medicine in treating many bone disorders is bisphosphonate (Actonel, Didronel or Fosamax) that has importance in the production of normal bones. For relieving the pain the doctors prescribe injectable calcitonin (a body hormone) that also slows the bone growth and loss. Another drug used to relieve pain is acetaminophen; it does not interfere in any processes involving the bones having no inflammatory characteristics. So that it can be safely taken in combination with other medications. But the dosage must be carefully administrated because an overdose could provoke serious damages to the liver. Be careful because many drugs contain small doses of acetaminophen. Bones usually need calcium to develop well so try to maintain the percentage of calcium in your body at a proper value. A very good method to retain calcium in your body is to drink as much water possible or any other fluid (at least five glasses a day) and to follow a balanced diet, containing aliments rich in calcium, for example: broccoli, almonds, cheese, milk, dark green leafy vegetables, sardines yoghurt, or salmon. The dose of calcium needed for each day is of about 900-1800 mg. The pain may be gone if you follow a strict program of exercises that should be established after you talk to your doctor. A wrong type of exercise could aggravate Paget’s Disease and your bones could break more easily. The pain may go away for the moment after a hot bath or shower or if you apply ice on the sore area.